Automaton
by Invader Snik
Summary: After finding out that their new acquaintance, Moon, has left Danville, the boys receive a mysterious email from a user claiming to be one of Moon's old friends. There's just one problem: Moon's told them she's never had any friends. So who is this user, really, and what does he want? The boys may get to delve a little deeper into Moon's past than they bargained for...
1. The Day That Moon Skipped Town

He couldn't see a thing beyond the cold murky darkness. He could do little except sit, hoping that someone would come for him. As his vision began to adjust to the dark, he could make out the outlines of the cage he'd been trapped in. It was cold here, and he sat huddled in the corner to keep himself warm. He shivered. Well, he thought to himself, at least he wasn't alone. Zhalgo had been keeping him company for the past two days, and he was glad of that.

He wondered how Ferb was doing. He was probably fine. He kind of missed him. He thought about Candace, and whatever she was doing. She was probably out looking for him. He appreciated that. He wondered if Moon had heard about what had happened. Maybe she would come and save him again.

But somehow he doubted that. If the metal-man was right, she'd skipped town days ago, and she probably wouldn't be back. What would that make him, then, he wondered.

Probably dead.

He sighed.

* * *

><p>-four days earlier-<p>

"Mom! Come and see what Phineas and Ferb are doing!" Candace shouted from behind the gate. I liked how she was always so enthusiastic about what we did every day. She would always watch and try to guess what we were building (sometimes Ferb and I would give her hints). After she'd guessed what it was, she'd always go and show Mom. She must be so proud of us.

Well, it never really got to the showing Mom part. For one reason or another, everything we built always found a new home by the time Mom got back. That was fine with us. We didn't have enough space to keep everything anyway.

Sure enough, soon as Mom came into the backyard our new transmogrifier was gone.

Candace just stood there for a moment, but then sighed. "I'll be upstairs."

"Okay, Candace," Mom replied, then turning to Ferb and me.

"Hi, Mom!" I grinned, "How was work?"

Mom sighed. "Oh, just the boring same-old same-old. You boys want to come in for some snacks?"

"Okay," I followed Ferb inside and we joined Marissa at the kitchen table. She'd been sketching again, and the tabletop was littered with several sheets of notebook paper, little frilly edges sticking up where they'd been torn out of the book.

"Hey, boys," said Marissa, "What've you been doing today?"

"Does it matter?" Candace interrupted from the counter, "Mom didn't even see it."

"Oh, don't be like that, Candace," I sympathized, "You can have a turn on whatever we build tomorrow."

Candace only groaned, quickly disappearing upstairs.

"You boys have such active imaginations," was all Mom said before she went off to go say hi to Dad.

"Hey, Ferb, you wanna go and say hi to Moon?" I asked, "I think she's kind of lonely up there, you know?"

Ferb only nodded.

"Now hold on a minute," Marissa put in, "That Moon's dangerous. I'm not so sure you should be going out there by yourself."

"Well, why don't you come with us, then?" I turned to her, "Just maybe to hang out for a while."

Marissa faltered. "Well, that's not really what I meant-"

"Don't sweat it, Marissa," I encouraged, giving her a playful nudge with one elbow. "What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

><p>Moon wasn't home. That's what happened. All we found was a note on the door that had "back in five" scrawled in messy handwriting. Well, that was a little weird. Usually Moon would be home during the day, unless she'd found another place to sleep.<p>

"Oh, well, Moon's not here. Come on, let's go," said Marissa, turning back down the rough dirt driveway that led into the woods.

"Oh, we'll just wait for her. Five minutes isn't long," I replied hopefully, taking her hand and tugging her back. "Come on, please?"

Marissa groaned. "Fine."

So we sat out on the front step until sundown. It was a little more than five minutes, but that was okay. It was dark by the time we got home, and soon as we came into the house Candace went bonkers. As it turned out she'd been watching a bunch of scary movies all in a row and was a little jittery.

I thought it was kind of funny.

* * *

><p>I set my alarm a little early the next morning, hoping to catch Moon before she went to sleep. The sun wasn't up yet, although the sky had begun to turn a very morning-like shade of pink. Ferb and I dressed quickly, sneaking downstairs so we wouldn't wake Mom and Dad up. We'd probably be back before they woke up, anyway.<p>

"Where do you two think you're going?"

We both froze. After a minute I turned to see Candace at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. "If you think you're going off to build another one of your stupid machines that doesn't make any sense you are _so_ busted-"

"We're going out to Moon's house," I told her, "She wasn't home last night."

"What?" Candace came down the stairs after us, her bare feet making a soft thud on each step, and stared down right into my eyes. "You know that Moon is a weirdo. Come on, just go back to bed."

"You want to come too?" I asked.

Candace shook her head. "You guys aren't going anywhere. Now come on."

"But, Candace-"

"Forget it, Phineas," she snapped, "Now go back up to bed or else I'm telling Mom."

There was silence for a moment as she glared at me, unwavering, but then I just sighed. "Okay. Come on, Ferb."

The two of us went back upstairs, with Candace following close behind, and we made sure that she was back in her room before hopping out the window and down the street. Moon's house was on the end of Aspen Street, only a couple of blocks away, and by the time we got there the sun was just poking up in between the houses on the edge of the forest. The two of us went quickly up the dirt driveway, leaving small dewey footprints that would probably disappear once the sun rose a little higher. Opening the front gate, I could see Khan sleeping out on the front step, her tail drooped over the edge. As we got closer she woke. First yawning and then stretching, she turned to us and chattered.

"Hi, Khan," I scooped her up and held her for a moment, giving her a little scratch just behind the head. It was the same place that made Perry's tail jump up, and I wondered if it was the same for her.

It wasn't.

That was fine. She seemed happy enough to see us. When I put her back down again she sat on Ferb's feet, encouraging him to sit on the step and pet her.

"Is Moon home?" I asked, "She wasn't home yesterday, and we kind of wanted to visit."

Khan shook her head - apparently Moon hadn't been home since two days ago.

"Hmm. That's a little weird," I speculated, "I wonder what happened."

Ferb looked up at me from petting Khan. "Phineas," he said, "I think she's gone."


	2. RocketJawsOfFire1229

It was still early by the time the boys got back from Shadowshire. Candace had gone back to sleep, and their parents hadn't woken up yet, giving them an easy time sneaking back up to their room. Perry had found a comfortable place on one of Ferb's pillows, and he watched them both come inside.

"Oh, good morning, Perry," Phineas took a seat next to him and began scratching him behind his head. After a moment Perry chattered.

"I don't suppose you know where Moon is, do you?" Phineas asked, not really expecting an answer.

Perry blinked.

"Oh, well. I hope she'll be back soon. She was nice," Phineas sat back, pulling Perry up onto his lap and continuing his affection.

Just then his laptop, which had been sitting in the drawer of his bed-table, gave a sudden ping, alerting him that he'd just received an email. He frowned. "That's weird," he said, "If that's the supply warehouse again, it's a little early, don't you think?"

Ferb just shrugged.

Phineas shrugged back, carefully settling Perry on the pillow where he'd been sitting to make room for his laptop as he pulled it up off the table into his lap. He opened it, waited a minute for it to boot up, and then clicked on the little paper-airplane icon in the corner of the screen.

Ferb glanced down over his shoulder, a little curious himself. The email wasn't familiar to them: RocketJawsOfFire1229. That wasn't anyone they knew. Regardless, Phineas clicked it open. It read:

_"I don't believe we've met, Phineas Flynn, but it seems awe share an acquaintance. Moon is, shall I say, an old friend, and about a week ago I thought I would send her a brief hello. Unfortunately, she seems to have disappeared and it is for this purpose that I am contacting you. I am concerned for Moon and would greatly appreciate it if you would help me locate her. Please let me know as I am anxious to share some old feelings with her._

_ Best regards."_

Phineas frowned. "That's weird. Moon said she never had any friends. What do you think, Ferb?"

Ferb blinked.

"Well, let's see what this is all about," Phineas resolved, his fingers clicking over the keyboard as he typed his response:

_"Unfortunately, we haven't seen Moon either. We went to visit her last night and again this morning, but she wasn't home. If she comes back, Ferb and I will let you know._

_ "How long have you known Moon? She's told us she didn't have any friends, and we're a little curious."_

He paused briefly, turning to Ferb. "You have anything to add?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Okay," he clicked _send_ and waited a moment, then set the laptop back on the bed-table and followed Ferb downstairs for breakfast.

By the time they got there, Candace and Marissa had already finished, and were in the midst of an argument that neither of the boys really wanted to be involved in. They each took a seat, and within seconds the girls' argument dissolved into silence. Ferb grabbed the cereal and poured himself a bowl, and after a minute Phineas did the same.

"Morning, boys," said Marissa, any trace of irritation gone from her voice. She gave Phineas a grin, which was returned, and then turned to Ferb. "Candace said you wanted to go out to Moon's house this morning."

"We wanted to, yeah," Phineas confirmed, "But Candace said she'd wake Mom up if we did."

Marissa was silent for a moment. When she spoke her voice was neutral, but Phineas knew that was only because she couldn't get angry with either him or Ferb. "Moon's dangerous. She kills all these little animals, and she's got that huge knife with her all the time, and she's just so weird. You never know what could happen with her."

"Well, she did save my life," Phineas shrugged, "Twice, actually. She can't be all that bad."

Marissa hesitated, but then relented. "I guess you're right-but she's still dangerous."

"She's friendly enough," Phineas grinned.

Marissa just left it at that. If they were going to go out to that kooky old house again later, she'd like either herself or Candace to be there too. That Moon was too unpredictable for her to let them go alone.

"Hey, Marissa?" Phineas asked suddenly, "Do you know anyone online called RocketJawsOfFire1229?"

Marissa frowned. "No, why?"

"Ferb and I got an email from them before we came down for breakfast. We were just wondering if you knew them."

Marissa shrugged. "Ask Candace. Before she found out Jeremy existed she stalked about a hundred other people online."

"Hey!" Candace exclaimed, giving Marissa a glare, "It was only fifty-seven, okay?"

"Were any of them called RocketJawsOfFire1229?" Phineas asked.

Candace shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Hmm, that's weird. We'll just have to ask them how they got our email, then," Phineas resolved, leading Ferb back upstairs to their room. He could see the laptop sitting open, showing them another email from this RocketJaws. It read:

_"Absolutely no idea? How curious. If she's at all like I knew her some years ago, she has a knack for finding trouble. I had hoped that she would have confided in someone where she had gone. I visited her new residence some days ago, but neither of her strange pets would tell me where she had gone. I am looking forward to meeting you two, and I am looking forward to your help in locating the elusive Moon._

_ Best regards."_

Phineas replied: _"Ferb and I are always looking to make new friends. We'd be happy to meet you sometime! Just name the time and place and we'd love to get together with you._

_ Till then, Phineas&Ferb"_

They hardly had to wait for RocketJaws' reply: _"How about the park in an hour?"_

Immediately one of Phineas' eyebrows shot up. "Well, that was quick. What do you say, Ferb, you wanna meet this guy?"

Ferb nodded.

"Okay, then," Phineas nodded, then typed two words: _"Sounds good."_ Closing the laptop and setting it back on the bed-table, he went over to the closet that he and Ferb shared and dug out a box that was full of blueprints. "What do you say we whip up a little something for him? I bet he'd like that."

Ferb agreed without a word. The two of them quickly settled on a blueprint that they both liked, and within minutes they had taken the beginnings of the project out to the garage for work.

"What are you two doing?" Candace asked from behind them, making them both jump.

"Oh, hi, Candace," Phineas smiled, turning and showing her the piece that he'd just finished putting together. "We're meeting a friend at the park in a little while and we thought it would be cool to build him a temporal modulator-"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Candace waved a hand, dismissing Phineas' words, "But is it bustable?"

"Well, you could break it if you really wanted to, I guess," Phineas shrugged, "But-"

"Great!" Candace exclaimed, grabbing the piece out of her brother's hand and then turning back to the house. "Mom! Come and see what Phineas and Ferb are building!"

"But, Candace-" Phineas started, but she was already gone. He just shrugged. "It's not even finished yet. It won't do much."

"Well, she's got the control modulator. Maybe it'll turn her green," Ferb put in.

Phineas giggled. "With Candace's luck it probably would. Ah, well, let's just get this thing finished."

Ferb agreed, and soon they were back to work. The rest of the device assembled fairly quickly, and once it was put together the two of them turned to each other. Rock, paper, scissors. "Rock beats scissors," Phineas proclaimed, "Go and get the control modulator from Candace. If she turned green I'll give you a quarter."

Ferb nodded and then disappeared into the house. He returned a moment later with the control in one hand, and tossed it to Phineas so he could finish assembling the machine.

"Well?" Phineas asked, "What color did she turn?"

Ferb only shook his head. No suck luck, apparently.

"Oh, well," Phineas shrugged, clicking the last piece into the machine and then taking a step back. "You wanna see it in action?"

Ferb nodded, flicking the switch on one side and then stepping back as well. For a long moment nothing happened, but then there was an ear-piercing shriek from inside. Before either of the boys could speculate on this, Candace burst into the garage, furious. It seemed she'd turned green after all. "Phineas and Ferb, what have you done to me?" she cried, "I'm supposed to meet Jeremy in like ten minutes! I can't go out like this!"

"Oh, don't worry, Candace," Phineas assured her, fishing a quarter out of his pocket to hand to Ferb, "Here. It's no big deal."

Ferb reached over to the machine and adjusted one of the knobs on the side, setting Candace back to her normal color. He gave her a thumbs-up without a word.

"There, see?" Phineas grinned, "It's fine."

Candace looked down at herself, making sure everything was in order, and then turned back to Phineas. "And don't you do that again, got it?"

"Sorry," said Phineas.

Candace stomped off into the house without another word, and Phineas waited until she was out of earshot to burst into laughter. "That was great! Did you see the look on her face? Priceless..."

Ferb agreed with a tiny amused smirk. He and Phineas high-fived, and then Phineas glanced down at his watch. "Well, I guess we'd better get to the park. I wanna meet this RocketJaws guy."

Ferb picked up the machine and set it carefully down in the boys' red wagon, following Phineas down the driveway to the edge of the street. He saw his mother planting tulips around the mailbox, and smiled. "Hi, Mom. The tulips look good."

"Thanks, hon," she replied without looking up, "Where are you two off to?"

"Just the park, if that's okay. We're meeting a friend," Phineas told her.

His mother nodded, her eyes still on the flowers. "Okay, well, you boys have fun."

"Okay, Mom," Phineas grinned, and then he and Ferb headed for the park. It was still early; the morning's dew hadn't had quite enough time to disappear, and when they took the wagon onto the grass it left two long lines where it had been. They both took a seat on one of the benches that were scattered about the park, and for a few minutes they waited in silence.

There were sudden footsteps behind them and the boys both turned to see a small robot that resembled an oversized scorpion. It had six sharp legs and a long tail that ended in a rough-cut point. The front of its body was a small camera lens, black and lifeless, but it turned up and gave each of the boys a solid look-over. It spoke in a monotonous voice, mechanical. "Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher?"

"Yeah, that's us," Phineas nodded, resting his elbows on the back of the bench as he stared down at the robot, "You didn't tell us you were a robot."

"This is just a scout," the robot explained, "I can send it anyplace I please."

"Well, it is pretty cool," Phineas admitted with a grin.

The robot was silent.

After a moment Phineas spoke again. "We brought something for you," he said, pointing over to the wagon that Ferb had brought with them, "We thought you might like it."

The robot turned and hopped up onto the edge of the wagon, looking over the boys' offering. After a minute it turned back to them. "I thought these defied the laws of physics. This cannot possibly be functional...?"

Phineas nodded. "Yeah. It works. We accidentally turned my sister green with it earlier."

"I see," was all the robot said.

Phineas was silent for a moment, but then felt he had to ask: "How come you sent a robot out instead of coming yourself?"

The robot turned back to him without a word.

"I was just curious," Phineas shrugged, "If you don't wanna mention it you don't have to."

"There is no possible way I could have come out for you today," was all it said.

Phineas shrugged. "Okay."

"What about your friend Moon?" the robot asked suddenly, looking up at Ferb, "Where has she gone?"

"We don't have any idea, actually," Phineas told it, shifting his position slightly so the foot he had been sitting on would wake up again. After a minute he cringed slightly, shaking the pins and needles away, and then turned back to the robot.

"Are you sure?" the robot persisted, "Have you considered looking for her?"

Phineas shrugged. "She'll come back when she wants to. She left Khan and Khalia here so I'm assuming she will."

"Her two pets," the robot clarified.

Phineas nodded. "Yeah."

"We should look for her," said the robot, giving Phineas a long stare with the lens mounted in its body, "I want to find her."

"Why don't you just hang around a few days?" Phineas suggested, "Maybe she'll come back-"

"I want to find her today," the robot insisted, "You should help."

"But I-"

"Come," the robot interrupted, turning and scuttling down the sidewalk and off toward the street. After a minute it turned back to the boys. "Come."

The boys exchanged glances, and then followed the robot back into the streets.


	3. The Mind Behind the Machine

The robot led the boys back through the streets, and after a few minutes they reached the edge of the neighborhood. Phineas wasn't really sure where they were going, but he would follow nonetheless. He and Ferb exchanged glances every now and then, but nothing was said between them.

Eventually the robot stopped. It turned back to them, the camera mounted on its body betraying none of its thoughts, and spoke. "You will find Moon. You will find her, and you will return her here by this time tomorrow. That is all."

"What?" Phineas asked, "I thought we could be friends."

The robot paused, then replied: "Perhaps we will. But first you must find Moon and bring her back to me."

"How come?" Phineas asked, "Were you one of her friends?"

The robot was silent. It settled on the curb for a moment, and then finally looked up at the two of them. "I used to be."

"Moon told us she never had any friends," Phineas frowned, "Why would she ignore you like that?"

"You would have to ask her that when you find her," the robot told them matter-of-factly. After a short pause it asked, "How much of her do you know, exactly?"

"She hasn't told us a lot, really," Phineas admitted, "She's pretty secluded. But she's nice enough. She saved my life the first time we met, you know."

"Interesting," the robot said flatly.

Phineas nodded. "She says she doesn't want any friends, and that she's happy enough living on her own in that old house up on the hill, but I think she gets a little lonely up there sometimes. You know?"

"No," said the robot.

Phineas shrugged. "Well, that's okay too. How come you're looking for her, anyway? How long were you friends with her?"

The robot was silent. Apparently it didn't want to answer. It only stared with its dark black lens, unwavering. Just when Phineas was certain it wouldn't reply, it did: "About three months."

"Really?" Phineas cocked an eyebrow, "What happened after that?"

The robot just settled, clearly not wanting to talk much about the topic. If it had been offended or irritated at what Phineas had said, it didn't show.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Phineas said quickly, "Can you at least tell us your name?"

The robot didn't move. After a minute Phineas realized that it had shut off. It just sat silently at the edge of the road, inactive.

"Hmm," Phineas frowned, "That was unexpected."

Ferb just shrugged.

Phineas turned to him. "I guess we go home, then. I wonder if Moon will come back? I wish she would. I think she should meet her old friend again."

Ferb had no comment.

"Oh, well. Come on, Ferb. Let's go see if Moon came home," Phineas pulled him back through the streets, toward the end of Aspen Street, and within minutes they reached the front door of the old house. The place was empty; the same note hung on the front door: "Back in five."

Moon wasn't home.

Phineas sighed. "Oh, well. We'll try again later tonight. Let's go home."

Ferb agreed.

The two of them wound back through the streets, eventually finding their way back to the garage and from there up into their room. By the time they got there, the sun had come up over the top of the tree that stood in the backyard and the dew that had been there when they had come had gone. Perry had all but disappeared, same as usual, leaving the boys alone in the house since Phineas remembered Candace mentioning something about hanging out with Jeremy and Marissa sat reading in the backyard. He could see his mother still working with the tulips by the street, and since the garage had been empty when they'd come in, that meant that Lawrence was out running some errands.

Phineas sat back on the edge of his bed, pensive, and after a moment he turned back to Ferb. "D'you think she'd really just run away from us like that?" he asked, "Is it just me or does RocketJawsOfFire1229 seem a little weird to you?"

Ferb blinked.

"Yeah," Phineas agreed, "You're right. It's probably nothing. Oh, well. I guess we got done early, then. We've already built that temporal machine so I guess we're pretty much off the hook, unless you want to do anything in particular."

Ferb shrugged.

"Cool. A day off, then," Phineas resolved, flopping back onto the bed and stretching his hands out to the other side. He was about to say something else, but the sound of Isabella's voice floated in through the window and he paused. Jumping up off the bed, he opened the window further and spotted her standing in front of Marissa.

"Hi, Isabella!" he called with a grin, waving to her to get her attention.

"Phineas?" Isabella asked, her voice chipper, "Aren't you going to build anything today?"

"We already did," Phineas told her, "Come on inside and Ferb and I can tell you all about it."

A minute later he could hear Isabella's footsteps coming down the hall, and then the door opened and she poked her head inside.

"Come on in," Phineas invited, scooting over on the bed to make room for her to sit.

Isabella sat, giving Phineas a strange look. "How early were you up today?" she asked, "Usually you guys haven't even finished your project by the time I get here."

Phineas nodded. "We made a new friend today," he told her, "RocketJawsOfFire1229. He's pretty cool."

"So what did you build?" Isabella asked, frowning.

"A temporal machine," Phineas said proudly, "It can rip holes in space-time and a whole bunch of other stuff."

"Just earlier this morning it turned Candace green," Ferb put in.

Phineas giggled. "Yeah, that was pretty funny."

"So who's this RocketJaws guy?" Isabella inquired, "That sounds like a username for some weird website where you look at pictures of cats."

"It's his email," Phineas replied with a shrug, "He didn't tell us his real name."

"Well, what does he look like?" Isabella chirped, "You said you met him, didn't you? Or was it just an email chat?"

Phineas hesitated. "Well, when we talked to him earlier, he'd sent out a little scorpion-looking robot instead of coming on his own. It was pretty cool."

Isabella frowned. "That's weird. Do you think he might be hiding something?"

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Phineas shrugged, giving Isabella a neutral look, "We don't need to pry too far into that, do we?"

Isabella shook her head. "I guess not," she admitted. There was a pause, but then she added, "So what now? Are you going to see him again?"

"Well, he emailed us this morning looking for Moon," Phineas told her, "We found out last night that she'd skipped town, but-"

"Good riddance," Isabella huffed before she could stop herself.

Phineas didn't seem to notice. "-but he wants to see her anyway. He said we should find her so that he can meet her. He said he's an old friend of hers."

"That can't be right," Isabella protested, "Moon said she never had any friends-"

"Exactly," Phineas agreed. He gave Isabella a short glance and then continued. "Either he's not telling the truth or else Moon is hiding something."

"What's she hiding?" Isabella asked, "Probably something really bad."

Phineas just shrugged. "Beats me. But that's her business."

"What?" Isabella exclaimed, "Aren't you at least curious?"

"A little. But I'm not going to press it further than she's comfortable with."

"But-" she started.

Phineas shook his head. "It's not a problem. That's okay with us. Right, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded.

"See?"

Isabella didn't answer. Of course Phineas would think Moon was okay. He was too oblivious to see that Moon was weird. She wasn't just weird; she was dangerous. It was just as well that she'd run off.

Wasn't it?


	4. Capture

It was almost dark by the time the boys went back to Shadowshire. Candace had gone with them, despite her loathing of Moon, and the three of them stood at the front gate. Even from there, Phineas could see the note still stuck on the front door of the old house. He was starting to become a little worried for Moon. Maybe something had happened to her.

Candace had said she just plain old ditched them.

Phineas didn't really want to believe that. He wanted to think that Moon was just out for a while, and that she'd be back later.

Ferb didn't seem to have an opinion.

* * *

><p>Morning came soon enough, and the sharp sound of the alarm woke Ferb from his dreams. With one hand he slammed down on the snooze button, fumbling around behind it to find the switch that disabled the alarm. It was the first thing he did every morning and yet, despite this, it seemed that the switch never became easier to find. He yawned, stretched, scratched, and then looked over at Phineas to see if he'd woken.<p>

He had, although he seemed a little more enthusiastic than his step-brother. He yawned and then met his stare. "Good morning, Ferb," he grinned.

Ferb just blinked. He wasn't in the habit of saying much, but first thing in the morning he never said anything at all. He counted himself lucky if he was able to think before breakfast. He knew Phineas never noticed this, since he was just the same quiet Ferb, and that was alright with him.

He yawned.

He and Phineas dressed quickly and then headed downstairs for breakfast, and then after that to discuss the day's plans. Phineas had a few ideas and he was eager to hear what Ferb had to say. He had a feeling Ferb would like them. He usually did. He supposed that, after they were done with the day's activities, the two of them would stop by Shadowshire later to see if Moon had come back yet. It was okay if she hadn't, but if nothing else he wanted to say hi to Khan and Khalia. He thought that maybe they were a little lonely up in that house, especially since Moon wasn't home, and he'd do the best he could to fix that.

As the sun rose higher, the boys migrated to the backyard to begin their daily routine of defying the laws of time and space. Candace watched them from her bedroom window, as she usually did, and soon they settled on a final idea for the day.

The back gate swung open with a creak, and Isabella skipped into the yard with a grin on her face. "Hey, Phineas," she greeted cutely, "What'cha doin'?"

"Oh, hi, Isabella," Phineas grinned, "We're-"

"So busted!" Candace cried from the window. Phineas looked up to see that she had set up a mounted camera overlooking the yard and had apparently been filming them for most of the morning. She didn't seem too happy - Phineas wasn't exactly sure why, but decided it must be a girl thing - and she stood glaring down at the boys.

"Oh, hi, Candace!" Phineas called, "What's with the camera?"

Candace huffed. "Nothing you have to worry about, at least until you're busted! I'm telling Mom!" and then she disappeared inside, taking the camera with her.

Phineas shrugged. "Well, that was a little weird."

"Yeah, I'll say," Isabella agreed, "You guys didn't even do anything yet."

Before Phineas could say anything else, there was a small click behind him and he turned to see the little robot from yesterday, sitting on the grass in front of him. He grinned. "Oh, hi," he said, taking a seat as well so he could be level with it, "What happened yesterday? You kinda shut down on us."

The robot turned to Isabella briefly, focusing its lens on her for a moment and then turning back to Phineas. When it spoke its voice seemed irritated. "Have you found your friend?"

Phineas shook his head. "She wasn't home last night, so-"

"Come," said the robot, looking up at Phineas.

Phineas frowned. "Well, Ferb and I were planning to build a-"

"Come," the robot repeated. It didn't wait for an answer before turning and heading off toward the street.

Phineas glanced to Ferb and shrugged. "I guess we follow it."

Ferb blinked.

The two of them quickly chased the robot out into the streets, back to the place where it had led them the day before. When they got there it sat silently, waiting for them.

"Oh, there you are," Phineas finally caught up to it, with Ferb close behind, and took a minute to catch his breath before turning back to the robot. "How come you brought us here? Isn't this the same place you showed us yesterday?"

The robot only stood, watching without a sound.

Phineas thought that maybe RocketJaws wouldn't mind if he took it back home for a while and showed him some more of what he and Ferb did, so he made to pick it up. As soon as he got close enough he sprung a hidden trap that caught him and pinned him to the ground before he could even realize what had happened. After a moment he was gone.

Before Ferb could react, the robot spoke. Its voice was steely and mechanical, like the voice of an engine itself, flaming under its metal shell. "It is clear to me now that you have no regard for your friend Moon - and she likely has the same for you - and so I will make this simple for you. I have given you a day to find her, and you have ignored me. I will give you three more. If you ignore me again, your brother will be killed. Understood?"

Ferb glared. Without a word he reached for the robot, so that he could tear it up into scrap for what it had done. The robot hardly moved, just flicking its sharp tail that stung Ferb like a bee and made him pull his hand back away from it.

"You have three days," it told him, "And one more thing - if you _do_ find your friend, tell her that old Six-Bolt said hello."


	5. Zhalgo

Phineas didn't know what had hit him. All he knew was that he'd been snared with thin steel cables and then pulled down into a dark space. He could hardly see, and he could hardly move. What was this about, he wondered. Why would one of Moon's old friends be after her like this? Why hadn't Moon mentioned ever having any friends? He frowned, trying to remember what it was that she _had_ said on the topic. Very little, he knew. Every time he asked her if she wanted to be his friend, she would decline and then change the subject. He had thought that was a little bit odd, but he wouldn't press the matter as he thought it was fair that she shouldn't have to talk about it if she didn't want to.

There was a sudden click behind him and the cables that had tangled around him began to loosen, allowing him to squirm free of them. A thin crack of light in front of him drew his attention, and he could see, past it, an empty cavern that must have been at least a hundred feet high. It was dark, but since he could still see he assumed that there was an opening nearby. Suddenly it went dark, and as the ground under him split open he scrambled back. A piercing yellow light fell over him, making him flinch and hold a hand over his eyes to shield them, and a moment later an enormous steel hand grabbed him and pulled him out into the cavern. Immediately he was hit with a blast of cold air, making him shiver, and he sat square in the middle of the gigantic hand that had taken him. The impossibly bright light was still on him, and he felt exposed by it, as if it could see through him.

He didn't say a word.

The light on him dimmed, just enough to allow him to see, and he looked back to see that he was sitting in the hands of an iron giant, easily fifty feet tall. It was distinctly mechanical in appearance, with two enormous hex-nut shoulder-blades and thick steel arms that had been dented in various places from years of wear. Its head was two solid pieces of metal, a hinged dinosaur-mouth with huge sharp teeth that marked a single zig-zag line across its face. Welded onto the top were its eyes, like the headlights of some old scrapped car, and from somewhere inside of it came the deep rumble of a massive engine that provided its power.

It looked down at him, and when it spoke its voice was deep and metallic, like its entire throat had been crafted out of metal. "Phineas Flynn," it said, "It seems your friend proves still elusive. I have told your step-brother already, and now I must inform you: if she is not found and returned to me within three days, I will have to kill you."

Phineas frowned. "Is that really necessary? I mean-"

"Silence," growled the machine, its fingers closing around him, "You will stay here for three days, and if your friend Moon is not found you will face your death."

Phineas didn't answer. He could only sit, huddled, and watch as the machine took him away, down into a dark tunnel. He could see little other than the machine's two enormous headlights, and he sat back in its huge palm as it went, making the entire earth rumble with its footsteps. After a long time, it stopped in front of a dark cavern and then looked down at Phineas. "You will spend your final days here," it told him, and then paused a moment so that he could get a good look at the place before turning to another structure. It appeared to be an old automaton, almost as big as the machine that held him, leaned up against the corner. It must have been there for years, Phineas reasoned, since it had rusted pretty badly. It stood like a Burtonesque creation, like something that could be found in an old abandoned cooky factory. Its head was a solid piece of molded metal, showing two enormous dark eyes and a blank sharp-toothed grin that stared back at him. Its neck was thin and eerily organic, made of steel vertebrae, attaching it to a rusted cage that seemed to hang in the air like a ghost. It took Phineas a minute to see its arms - thin wiry structures that stretched down, down, down to the ground far below. It stood balanced on its two slender hands and its tail, which hung loosely from the bottom of its cage. Phineas assumed it hadn't been functioning for years, and when the machine holding him opened up the front of the cage, it gave a loud screech that made Phineas flinch.

The machine quickly tossed him inside, closing the door with an equally grating squeal, and then looked down at him. "You will stay here until you are either released or killed. Pray that you will survive."

Phineas could do little but watch as the monstrosity turned and rumbled away, its engines slowly fading into silence and leaving him alone in the dark. He could feel his heart beginning to race as his mind edged toward panic, but he only sat in silence. Whatever would happen to him, it was out of his control now.

There was a sudden creak overhead and he looked up to see that the old machine that had trapped him was looking down at him. Its eyes had begun to glow the smallest bit, and it slowly turned its head down at him. The steel gave a harsh protest as it craned its neck to get a better look at him.

Phineas scrambled back, as he had thought that this machine wasn't functional, and pressed up against the back corner of his cage. He kept his eyes locked on the Burtonesque demon's head, and it stared back at him, unblinking. Although its face had been forced into an eternal smile, it seemed more curious than anything. It creaked with every move, chips of corroded metal and rust falling free of the joints in its neck as it brought its head down lower, until it had reached as far as it could. Its eyes seemed to glow with Phineas' own energy, and he realized he was becoming the slightest bit dizzy. He blinked a few times to clear it from his head, glancing back at the automaton that watched him.

Slowly he approached the front of his cage, becoming a little curious himself, and stared back at the machine. He could see a small nameplate that had been mounted on the corner of the cage, but it was too rusted to be able to read. Regardless, he reached out to it and ran one finger along its edge. The rust came off relatively easily, and after a moment he could make out: ZHALGO, stamped in rigid letters on the nameplate.

Phineas turned back to it. "Zhalgo?" he asked, "Is that your name?"

The machine screeched. The sound was horrible, like two stone crows screaming, and and pierced Phineas' mind and made him dizzy. Out of instinct he put his hands over his ears to try and drive it out of his head, but it didn't make a difference. After it had finished, he backed away, retreating to the corner where he had been a minute ago.

The automaton suddenly shifted, throwing Phineas off-balance and making him scrabble back to the corner as the entire structure sank lower, lower, until it came to an uneven stop on its coiled tail. After a moment he could see that both of its hands had been dislodged from their corrosion-encrusted places on the hard ground. They cracked every time they moved, just two wiry fingers that split evenly from the arms, without any distinguishable wrist or thumb. With one side it curled its fingers around the bars of its cage, and with the other it reached inside and settled coldly over Phineas, pulling him gently closer to the front where it could get a better look at him.

Phineas only sat, unsure of what exactly this thing wanted. He wondered how old it was, and why it wasn't maintained, and where it came from, and a hundred other things that clouded his mind.

Finally he asked, "Is Zhalgo your name?"

The machine only stared back, watching him, but then after a moment it gave a tiny nod. Its master had given it that name a long time ago, it remembered, and it wondered what this little machine inside of it came from. It was curious about him, and after having been inactive for so long - how long, it did not know - it wondered what was to become of it after this. It had seen its new master, the one that held the key to its cage, but it didn't like him. It thought that he was too rough, too violent. It had been left here to rust, and now that it was active again it thought that perhaps its master would want to see it after it had been lost. It thought that the little machine that sat inside of it might be able to help. It gave Phineas a mechanized whine, hoping to communicate, but Phineas didn't seem to understand.

He frowned. "What is it? What do you want?"

Zhalgo tried again, but it couldn't speak. Instead it could only offer grinding creaks as its words, and it knew that Phineas couldn't understand.

Phineas didn't. He only sat, near the bars of his confinement, staring back at Zhalgo. After a moment he asked it: "What happened to you? You look like you've been here for years."

Zhalgo gave a small nod. It wasn't sure how long it had been here, but it must have been a long time since it had rusted so badly.

Phineas leaned back against the bars on the side of his cage, resting his arms around his knees, and sighed. "I wish you could talk to me," he said, "I'm curious about you."

Zhalgo agreed. It was curious too about Phineas, where he had come from, or who had built him. It reached with both hands into its cage and poked at him, determined to find something out about him. It wondered if perhaps he was alive? It had seen things that had been alive, as its master had been, but it hadn't seen them in so long, it couldn't be sure.

Maybe this little thing was alive. Zhalgo was beginning to think so. It didn't feel like a machine, and it was to advanced to be an android. Yes, Zhalgo decided, this was a living creature. It would be very careful with it, as it knew that living things were far easier to break than machines. It wanted this little creature to be its friend, if it would allow that.

Having a friend would be nice.


	6. Finding Moon

Ferb could hardly think as he ran back to his house. By the time he got there, Isabella and Marissa had begun a discussion about something, but Ferb knew this was more important. Without waiting for a turn to speak he interrupted: "Phineas is gone!"

Both of them turned to Ferb, although Marissa was the first to speak. "What?" she exclaimed, "What happened?"

"The robot took him," he panted, catching his breath, "If we don't find Moon in three days he said he'll kill him."

"What do we do?" Isabella squeaked, "Moon's not even home!"

Marissa frowned. "There's definitely something fishy about this. Two days ago Moon wasn't home, and now there's someone that will kill to find her. This isn't right."

Ferb nodded in agreement.

"Well, do you think we _can_ find her?" Isabella asked, "Once we tell her what's happening she'll probably help us."

Marissa shook her head. "If this isn't just a coincidence, that means she knew this guy was coming and she wanted to get away from him. She's probably long gone by now."

"Well if we don't find her then Phineas will die!" Isabella exclaimed, "We have to at least look-"

"We will," Marissa agreed with a nod. She took a deep breath to keep her heart from racing - whenever something happened to Phineas, she always reacted this way. She was protective of him, since he was her brother, and she didn't want to think about what would happen if Moon wasn't found. She wondered what had made Moon run off so easily. She had been able to kill Bellidor in a fight; what was so different about this?

Then, she wondered, what if this _was_ different? If it had driven Moon away, what could she and Ferb and Isabella do about it? Her first thought was to try and find Phineas instead, and leave Moon to herself, as she seemed to prefer it that way in the first place, but then she discarded the thought. She had a feeling that finding Moon would be simpler. "We'll start at her house," she said, "Then we'll work from there."

"I thought you and Phineas were there yesterday," Isabella frowned, turning to Ferb, "Was she even there?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Well, it's a place to start, anyway," Marissa sighed, "I just hope Phineas is doing okay."

Isabella nodded in agreement. "Well, let's go, then."

Ferb followed them back to Shadowshire, and he caught himself going to knock on the door once they got there. Instead he just pushed it open, and he and Marissa and Isabella peered inside. The house seemed vacant, and apart from the three of them it was silent.

"Moon?" Marissa called, her voice echoing back to her in the huge front room. "Moon? Hello?"

There was no answer, although after a few minutes Khan waddled into the room. Seeing them, she sat with a soft plop on the floor.

"Hi, Khan," Isabella sat in front of her, cross-legged, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "Have you seen Moon in the past few days?"

Khan shook her head.

"Did she tell you where she was going? Do you have any idea at all?"

Khan, again, shook her head.

"I wonder what it is about this guy that made Moon run off," Isabella pondered, putting a thoughtful hand up to her chin, "I mean, all we've seen of him is this little robot, right? Moon's handled bigger things than that."

"Maybe that means we should steer clear of him, too," Marissa said quietly. After a minute she added, "After we get Phineas back, I mean. Maybe Moon knows what she's doing. You said he was an old friend of hers, right?" she turned to Ferb, one of her eyebrows cocking inquisitively.

Ferb nodded. "He said his name was Six-Bolt."

"Well, no matter what his name is, we have to take Phineas back," Marissa resolved, "And in order to do that we have to find Moon."

Khan suddenly chattered, drawing their attention to Khalia, who had just wandered into the room and begun gnawing on Khan's tail. Khan pulled it away, and Khalia whined.

Isabella picked Khalia up, holding her carefully under the arms like the boys often did with Perry, and gave her a careful look-over. "Maybe she could track Moon," she though out loud, "I mean, we don't have any bloodhounds or anything, do we? And we're not getting very far on our own."

Marissa paused, thinking about it for a few moments, but then shrugged. "It's worth a try, I suppose."

Khalia squealed, a high kitten-like sound, and out of instinct Isabella quickly set her down, in case she'd hurt her. She rolled over on the floor for a minute, then hopped back onto her feet and sat by Ferb's side. She liked Ferb. He smelled the best of all of them. She sat by him for a moment as the humans finished discussing whatever it was that they thought was so important, but then lost interest in them and wandered off.

Before she could get too far, Ferb suddenly picked her up and held her firmly in his arms. If it had been Isabella or Marissa, she supposed she might have squirmed away, but instead she just lay still, her six stubby tails wavering in place. She looked up at Ferb, reaching up with one three-clawed paw and smacking his collar in amusement.

Ferb took her outside, to the front step, and sat on the cold concrete for a moment. He sat down and then asked her, "Can you find Moon?"

Khalia, immediately distracted, spotted a rabbit at the edge of the unkept grass, watched it for a moment, bounded after it, caught it, killed it, ate its death, and then killed it again, snapping its neck in one chomp and then taking it back onto the step and presenting it to Ferb as if he might eat it.

Ferb only blinked.

"Khalia, come on," Isabella groaned, "We need you to help us find Moon, okay?"

Khan chattered.

Khalia understood that. She squirmed in Isabella's hands, both paws stretched out in a playful grab for her nose, and Isabella reluctantly set her down on the edge of the step. Sticking her nose in the air, she began searching for Moon's scent. It was old and hard to track, but the trail was there and soon she hopped off into the grass and into the trees, headed into the forest away from town.

"Wait for me!" Isabella exclaimed, quickly chasing after Khalia and disappearing before either Ferb or Marissa could follow her.

* * *

><p>It was almost dark by the time Khalia stopped. They had been at it for hours; Isabella was certain they'd started before noon, and it was nearly sundown now. That was what, nine, ten hours, maybe? Too long, she thought. Her feet hurt; her legs hurt; her stomach rumbled fiercely from not having eaten since breakfast. She was starting to get a little cold. She was tired. She just wanted to go home. Why had she gone after Moon, anyway? She didn't even like Moon. She'd be just as happy if this Six-Bolt guy took her away forever. That would suit her fine.<p>

The coastline was somewhere up ahead, she knew. The air had taken on a faint marine scent, and sometimes if it was quiet enough she could hear the seagulls screaming from somewhere far-off. She wondered why Moon had followed the coast; it seemed almost too easy to track her from here, but then again if it hadn't been for Khalia she wouldn't have made it this far. It was cold here, too; after having left the summer of Danville, the wilderness quickly grew harsher. She should have brought a jacket; she could see her breath now, if she was looking for it, and she couldn't stop herself from shivering.

She just wanted to go home. Screw Moon. They'd probably have better luck finding Phineas than finding her anyway. That's what they should have done, she knew. They should have just found Phineas. Problem solved, right?

Khalia sat on Isabella's feet, keeping them warm, but after a moment she turned and headed quickly up a steep slope.

"Khalia, wait," Isabella called after her, but Khalia wasn't listening. She led Isabella up, up, until she could see a few flecks of snow that hovered in the air but didn't seem to want to settle on the ground. Still higher they went, until Khalia finally stopped at the edge of a sharply defined cave that had been hiding just over a ridge in the half-frozen ground. She sat, clearly expecting praise, but Isabella just scooped her up in her arms. She glanced down at the other side of the ridge, her eyes widening as she realized just how high up they were. It must have been at least half a mile; she could see the tiny peak of Danville Mountain far off in the distance, dwarfed by the surrounding landscape and almost invisible in the near dark. Far below was the coast, just a mangled pile of rocks housing rough choppy waves that seemed to beckon to her.

She held Khalia in her arms for a moment, trying to calm herself from shivering, and did her best to keep her balance as she slid down into the cave. "Moon?" she called, "Hello?"

Her voice echoed endlessly through the empty cavern, returning back to her several times before falling into silence. She could hardly see a thing, but she had a feeling that maybe Moon wasn't here after all. She turned back to Khalia, whose eyes glowed the faintest honey yellow in the dark. "Are you sure she's here? I don't think there's anyone-"

Before she could finish, there was a sudden hand clamped over her mouth and she was pulled back, into a hidden corner of the cavern. Panicking, she squealed, squirming and pulling away from the hold on her. Turning back, she glared. But then her eyes widened. "Moon?"

"Quiet," Moon hissed, giving a brief glance to the opening of he cavern before turning back to Isabella. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Isabella retorted, crossing her arms. "You pretty much skipped town!"

"Yeah, what of it?" Moon snapped, giving Isabella an irritated glare.

"Marissa and the boys are so worried about you," Isabella told her, "Haven't you even considered that?"

Moon shook her head. "They don't concern me," she said, "I think they'll survive on their own."

"Oh yeah?" Isabella challenged, her glare intensifying, "Well what if I said Phineas has been kidnapped by a guy with a robot?"

Moon faltered. "What?"

"Yeah, you heard me," Isabella snapped, "And the guy's after you. He said that if you don't show up he'll kill Phineas."

"He wouldn't-"

Isabella nearly screamed. "Moon, listen! If you don't go back there Phineas is going to die! Don't you care for him at all?"

"Well," Moon sat, pensive, in the corner for a moment, then turned back to Isabella with a sigh. "Not really."

"What is wrong with you?" Isabella cried, her voice echoing through the cave. She glared as hard as she could at Moon, knowing Moon wasn't intimidated by her but determined to get her point across. Her breath came out of her nostrils in thick angry puffs, and even Moon's presence made her a little uneasy, but still she refused to break her stare. She had to make Moon understand what she was doing.

Moon only stared back, her face completely blank. After a moment she spoke again, her voice its usual sullen quiet. "I wasn't going to stay anyway, you know," she said, "Even if this hadn't come up."

"So you know exactly what's going on, then," Isabella accused, settling her hands on her hips. She should have known Moon had been behind this, the reasoned. Tons of stuff ended up being Moon's fault, one way or another.

"No," Moon shook her head, her wild ponytail flicking back and forth as she did so, "I only found out a day or two ago."

"Find out about what? The robots? How much of this do you know? You're not telling us everything, and we need to know," Isabella demanded.

Moon snorted. "It's none of your business. Six-Bolt's not after you."

"It's exactly my business!" Isabella exclaimed, "Phineas just got kidnapped by a robot and I have to know why!"

Moon was silent for a long time. Her expression was unreadable; she only stared off into the darkness of the cave as if nothing else even existed. After a moment she turned back to Isabella. "Fine," she said quietly, "You really wanna know? I'll tell you."


	7. Making Friends

He hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until he was startled awake. The cold metal floor wasn't the ideal place to sleep, but the machine seemed to draw its power from his energy, and so he'd had little choice. He sat, his shoulder a little sore from the hard floor he'd slept on, and yawned. His stomach rumbled angrily, although he knew he wouldn't be eating anytime soon. Hopefully he would live long enough to have dinner with the family again.

He missed that.

The machine that held him looked down at him, providing a little light from its cold metal eyes, and offered a small creak as a greeting. It hadn't slept - it couldn't - so it had just watched the little living thing rest. It wondered many things about him, but it knew that since he was not mechanical he couldn't understand it. It could speak only in the machine's tongue, but since it had been left to rot for so long it could hardly manage even that. Instead, it just watched.

The boy glanced up at the machine, his eyes dull and listless, and then he just sighed. It didn't like seeing him like this, but there was little that it could say to him since he didn't understand how it spoke. But there was something else, it remembered. It searched in its steel mind for the right thing to express - it wanted to cheer him up, and it thought that if it wasn't too rusted it might be able to manage that. It kept its eyes down on him, and tried to speak, although the sounds it made were far from understandable.

It almost seemed to the boy as if - no, it couldn't. Could it? Its pitch was dull and rusted over, but there was in the metal sound lyrical notes, hardly there. He could barely make them out through the corroded screeches, but the tune seemed almost familiar to him, as if he might have heard it before.

He looked up at the machine, his eyes huge and innocent, and asked, "What is that? I've heard it before."

The machine brightened. It wished it could tell him where it had gotten its voice, and for a moment it tried, but all that came out were the same mechanized grinds that it had offered before, and it knew that the boy wouldn't understand.

The boy just sighed. "I wish you could talk to me. I want to know what kind of stories you'd tell."

The machine agreed, although its own sigh sounded like the wheeze of a rusted spring, its burden slowly relieved. Something inside of it clicked a few times.

"Could you ever talk?" asked the boy, "Before you came here, I mean."

The automaton shook its head, making chips of corroded metal flake away from its neck and settle on the floor. It had never been able to talk, although the sounds that it made used to be more enthusiastic. Now, it knew, it was just a relic. It didn't stand a chance of leaving this place. Its old master would never come for it. Its old master was probably long gone by now, having forgotten all about it.

Dejected, it sighed.

The boy hopped up onto his feet, holding the bars of his cage in both hands. "Don't worry," he said with a hopeful grin, "We'll find a way out of here. We can take you back home and fix you up. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

The machine gave a single grind, indifferent. It didn't matter if it was here or there, strong or weak, old or new. It knew that it would rust here. There was no way it could escape its new master and, besides that, its old master had left it behind. It missed its master - its _true_ master - but it knew that it would never see anything other than this dank place again. It had been left here, inactive, for years until this little living thing had given it its energy source. It didn't like seeing him so tired, but since its new master had its key it couldn't possibly let him out.

The boy only watched it for a moment, but then frowned. "How come you've never tried to get out of here? That other robot doesn't treat you very well, does he?"

The machine shook its head. Its new master, Six-Bolt, had been mean to it since he had found it here a few weeks ago. If it could escape, it would, but Six-Bolt was in much better condition than the old machine, and it knew he would catch it and hurt it. He had done so once before, when he had found it here. It had asked him if he knew its old master, and he had struck it with a harsh fire, and had told it not to speak to him again. It didn't like him; it didn't like the intense blaze in his engine, or his piercing yellow headlights, or the way he spoke, and moved, like a rough hulking menace looking for a fight. It hadn't wanted to fight him. Instead it had stayed here, afraid to leave, hoping that one day its master would come for it.

This little living thing had come instead. It was glad that he wasn't afraid of it anymore - he had been at first, he'd admitted - and it thought that if it could stay here it might be friends with him. It wanted to keep him, although it didn't know why he had come, and if bad master Six-Bolt ever went away it thought it might want him to be its new master. It looked down at the little living thing in its cage, wishing it could tell him where it had come from but unable to make him understand anything it said. Instead it only watched him, silent.

The boy stared back at it, his eyes huge and curious. "You're a prisoner here too, aren't you? You want to get out of here..."

The machine gave a tiny nod, its joints protesting with a harsh screech, and then seemed to settle a little in its place, keeping its eyes solidly on the boy inside of it.

The boy sat, cross-legged, both hands still around the bars of his cage, and sighed. "I wish I could get you out of here. It's just that you're so big, and I didn't bring any of my tools with me. Sorry about that, I guess. I wonder when that other robot will let me go. Maybe I'll ask him if he'd let you go too. But for now we can both be friends, right?"

The machine brought up one of its wiry hands into its cage, curling its two spindly fingers around the boy in what it hoped he would accept as a hug. With a reassuring grind, it settled down to rest for a while.


	8. Wanderer

**Hey, it's me again. Sorry I haven't posted in a while; things have been kind of busy lately and I've been a little overrun with lots of stuff. Anyway, I'm hoping to get back onto a somewhat-consistent schedule, so...yeah.**

* * *

><p>Moon sat, silent, over the small fire she'd made. She watched her kill roast for a few minutes, using the tip of her hunting dagger to turn it over every so often, and then she deemed it ready to eat and jabbed her knife into the side of the meat, tossing one piece to Isabella and taking the other for herself.<p>

"Hey!" Isabella protested, "You always get the big half!"

Moon rolled her eyes. "I killed it. I get as much as I want."

Isabella was silent after that. The meat was warm in her hands, and after the cold of the mountain she'd just climbed, she was glad of it. She tore into it before she could stop herself, and only after she was done did she remember her manners. She gave Moon a sheepish look.

Moon wasn't paying attention, having done the same to her own food, and after she was finished she licked her hands clean and then set her knife back in its sheath on her belt. She turned back to Isabella, her voice quiet. "You want to know why I left Danville," she said, "Don't you?"

Isabella nodded. "And about that robot guy, too."

Moon held up a hand. "One thing at a time."

"Fine," Isabella grumbled, scooting a little closer to the fire to keep warm. She wished she'd brought a jacket; even Moon had found a deer-hide to wrap around herself. Isabella didn't approve of the head still being on it, but she tried her best to ignore that. Moon _had_ given her dinner, after all. She didn't really like Moon but she was still grateful for that.

Moon took a minute to settle herself, keeping her deer-hide pulled tight around her, and then turned back to Isabella. "I left home on my seventh birthday - I'd been traveling for just over three years when I met him. His name was Six-Bolt Hudson. He had a real name, but I don't remember. He was the only human friend I'd ever had."

"You told us you never had any friends," Isabella interrupted, frowning.

Moon gave her an irritated look. "Do you want me to explain this or not?"

"Sorry," Isabella said quickly.

Without a pause Moon continued: "I met him in Bangor. I was ten; he was twelve. I'd never made a friend before, and I hadn't made another one since. I met him when I was out hunting; I hadn't meant to befriend him so quickly, but he taught me a few things and convinced me to stay with him for a while. He was one of those mad-genius types, always building and tinkering with things. Your two friends remind me a bit of him, actually, when they're in the middle of building something. He'd make these little remote-control robots and things. He built me a big music box for my eleventh birthday. I wanted to give him something back, but he hadn't been very interested in what I did to survive. He said he preferred mechanical things to living ones - he said life wasn't good enough, that he couldn't toy around with it as much as he wanted to. He tried to teach me what he knew, but he didn't get very far. Most of the things he had me build for him didn't work. But that was okay. I knew how to survive anyway. After a while we were okay together, I guess.

"But then it all went to hell. I was eleven at the time. There was just this one day where he'd been really irritated about something. I asked him what it was but he wouldn't tell me. I guess he'd just turned sour - things escalated and we wound up fighting. Even though he was bigger than me I'd been fighting for years, and he knew he didn't stand a chance against me. So he called in those little robots he'd built to help him. He pulled a knife on me, said he'd kill me if I didn't skip town. Eventually I wound up pushing him over the cliff. I didn't mean to - it just kind of happened, I guess. I remember for a while I just sat there and watched him as he fell - I didn't really know what happened till after...it was just all kind of a blur...

"For a while I thought he was dead. I'd long since gone, of course; there was no reason for me to stay there, not anymore, not after what had happened. It was almost a year later when I saw him again. He'd built himself up into this huge machine, said he was coming to kill me. It was easy enough for me to stay away from him, but he's been looking for me ever since."

"That's why you keep traveling all the time," Isabella whispered, her eyes wide, "That's why you wanted to leave Danville."

Moon shook her head. "That's only part of it," she told her, "I'd been traveling for years before that, and so I was pretty used to it. I hadn't meant to settle in the first place, though, but I guess I didn't really mind him coming after me. I was going to move on anyway, and I wasn't going to settle again."

"Until Danville," Isabella put in quietly. "Why did you decide to stay here, anyway?"

Moon gave her a narrow-eyed look. "I didn't," she replied, "I wasn't planning on staying."

"You've been here for a few weeks," Isabella told her.

"Which is why it's about time I moved on."

Isabella frowned. "You can't do that. What about Phineas? What'll happen to him?"

"That's not my problem," Moon retorted, "I was going to move on anyway. This just happened to come up."

"You can't just leave him to die! Don't you get it? This is _your_ problem, Moon! It's your fault this guy's even here at all! You have to deal with this!" Isabella cried, her hands curling into tight fists at her sides. She gave Moon a hard glare, hoping that she could make her understand.

Moon only sat, silent. "What will you do for me?" she asked, "If I go and rescue your friend, what do I get?"

"You don't get it!" Isabella screamed, "This is _your_ problem! You have to fix this! You can't just run away and expect everything to be fine! You have to deal with this on your own!"

"Maybe I am dealing with it," Moon snapped, "If Six-Bolt wants me so bad he'll come and chase after me again. It's all too easy to make sure he doesn't catch me."

"But what about Phineas?" Isabella crossed her arms, giving Moon an angry look, "Are you going to just let him die?"

Moon stared down at her, her eyes even. After a moment, however, Isabella was certain she saw them waver. "Maybe he'll forget about him once he finds out that I'm gone. He's more interested in me than in him."

Isabella shook her head. "That's not good enough. You have to deal with this now."

Moon only sat, silent. She kept her eyes low to the ground, refusing to meet Isabella's stare. After a long silence she spoke. "I can't."

"Why not?" Isabella demanded, "Give me one good reason."

Moon still wouldn't meet her eyes. "Because I can't. He's a machine now. I can't fight him."

"Well, what about Phineas? You can't just let that guy kill him!"

"I don't know," was all Moon said.


	9. Escape - Zhalgo Spills Its Soul

It was impossible to tell the day from the night. In here it was just dark. It was silent, too, and even as Phineas woke, the quiet pervaded the place. He knew that his three days were almost over - what would happen soon, he wasn't sure, but he hoped that Moon would come to save him. He could see the piercing headlights of the enormous robot as he approached, and as he stopped in front of him he could feel the heat radiating from his monstrous engine.

When he spoke, his voice was demonic, a low rumble that seemed to make the entire place shake. "Ah, Zhalgo, I see you have made a new friend. But, you see, this new friend of yours is destined to die," he chuckled to himself, a metallic and grating sound, and produced a rusted key that fit easily into the lock in the corner of Zhalgo's cage.

Zhalgo backed away, reluctant to give up its treasure, but since this bigger machine held its key, it knew it had to obey him. It gave little more than a whine as the key was turned in its lock and Phineas was pulled out of its cage to meet some unhappy death. It knew that it would never see him again - but, it noticed that its key had been left in its lock. Did that mean it was now freed? Slowly it stood, rising the long way up onto its spindly hands, and pursued the hulking robot, grinding angrily as it confronted him.

The machine growled in irritation. "Get out of my way, you rusted piece of scrap. I have no time for this."

Zhalgo ground again, determined, and pushed the machine back, grabbing Phineas out of his hand and setting him carefully back in its cage. It gave the iron giant little more than a glare before turning to run. It was sure it could escape now - the cave was not too long and there was a cliff nearby. It knew that its wings had not rusted too badly so it decided that was where it would go.

Phineas could hear the enormous machine coming after them, but he hoped that Zhalgo would be able to outrun him. He could see the opening of the cave up ahead - after his eyes took a few seconds to adjust, he could see the edge of an enormous cliff. He kept his hands wrapped around the bars of its cage as Zhalgo leaped; the metal frame of its wings spread almost without protest, but the leather was old and stiff, and broke apart on the slightest movement. Zhalgo realized its mistake too late and flapped its wings uselessly, curling up as tight as it could around its cage to protect little Phineas inside, and shut its glowing eyes against the oncoming ground.

Suddenly it hit, its rusted framework busting apart as it turned from dysfunctional old relic to pure scrap metal. Its cage was now in pieces, its arms and wings broken as well. Its head had been ripped off, coming to a stop half-buried in the dirt. Its key had snapped clean in two and now sat in the hand of little Phineas, unconscious among Zhalgo's shattered remains. With its corroded voice still intact, it began another tune that seemed to raise Phineas up from unconsciousness. He looked down at the pieces of the key in his hand and then stuffed them into his pocket, turning back to the remains of the automaton. "Zhalgo, I-" he began, but then fell silent. Its melody was haunting, and he was certain it was familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't place it. "Zhalgo, what is that? I've heard it. Tell me what it is."

Zhalgo only let it finish and then settled into silence, the glow in its eyes fading as its meager energy supply slowly ran out.

"Zhalgo-!" Phineas exclaimed, putting both hands on the side of its exposed head. He tried to keep the tears from welling up in his eyes, but after a moment they fell freely. "I - I'll take you back home, Zhalgo," he whispered, his voice all but gone, "I'll fix you up, okay?"

Zhalgo could only manage the smallest grind, but Phineas could see in its eyes that the cast-metal smile it wore was now true, and that it had given itself up to make sure he was free. It tried again with its final call, but without the energy to do so it just faded away into darkness.

Phineas sat with it for a long time, his hands pressed up against the cold metal, silent. Finally he stood, his tears having stopped, and then turned to run. He knew that huge machine was still after him, and he knew that if he didn't get back home he'd be killed.

With Zhalgo's key in his pocket, he ran.


	10. Home Safe

He knew he couldn't stop running. Somewhere off in the distance was the roar of that horrible machine, but he wouldn't allow it to get any closer. He wanted to go home, back with Ferb and Candace and Isabella and all the rest, back where he could build and play and have snacks when he was done. He thought the snacks should come first, since he was so hungry. That, he supposed, was what kept him running.

After a long time he finally stopped, less because he felt safe and more because he was exhausted. All he could see around him was grass and rocks; he had a feeling this wouldn't be the best place to look for a hiding spot. He just sat for a while, catching his breath, letting the fire in his lungs give way to the steady rhythm of his breathing. Glancing over his shoulder, he couldn't see the metal monster, but he could still hear the echo of its engine and he knew it was too close. Turning back to the field, he sighed. He knew he wouldn't make it too much further, only that he had to keep running. Taking a deep breath, he ran again.

It was night by the time Isabella finally drifted off to sleep. She'd curled up close to the fire, but despite that she still couldn't stop shivering. She wished for the hundredth time she'd brought a jacket, and if it hadn't been so far to go back home she would just go and get it. Slowly she had given up to sleep, her body too tired to keep herself awake, but even then it hadn't been a good sleep. The few dreams that she had were restless, and after an hour or so she woke, still shivering. She could see Moon sitting by the fire, tiny reflections of the flames in her eyes. "Moon?"

Moon glanced over at her without a word.

"I'm cold."

Moon sighed. "You do this a lot?"

"What?" Isabella asked.

"You don't come prepared for things," Moon replied, pulling her deer-hide off and tossing it to Isabella. "Most people would bring a jacket to cold places."

"I didn't know I'd be climbing a mountain," Isabella retorted, grabbing the deer-hide and pulling it around her. Discovering that the inside was coated in a thick layer of fat, she squealed in disgust and scrambled back. "Eww! That's gross!"

"But it's warm, isn't it?" Moon shrugged.

Isabella gave her a sour look, turning the hide fur-in to wrap around her. After a few minutes her shivering settled, and she was glad of that. She curled up on the cavern's floor again, trying to make herself comfortable, but no matter how she turned she couldn't find a spot that suited her. She came to the conclusion that the deer-hide wasn't big enough; she couldn't stretch out without freezing, no matter how she tried.

Moon just rolled her eyes, snatching the deer-hide back and wrapping it quickly around herself.

"Hey!" Isabella exclaimed, "I was-"

"C'mere," Moon commanded, taking Isabella by the back of her collar and pulling her up into her lap. "Happy now?"

Isabella was quiet for a moment, but then nodded. "I guess."

"Now I don't wanna hear another word outta you," Moon told her, "Got it?"

Isabella nodded, settling into a tight curl in the hopes to get some sleep.

Moon only sat, silent, for a few minutes, and then decided that she might want to get some sleep as well. She gave the fire a meaningful jab with her knife, making sure it would still be burning by the time she woke up, and then curled up for her own sleep.

She woke to the sound of a sharp bark from outside, and instantly her eyes were alert, scanning the cavern for anything that could have found them here. Slowly she rose, leaving sleeping Isabella with her deer-hide, and then slinked up the side of the cavern to the jagged opening.

She could see Khalia sitting up on a frozen rock, staring down at her with her amber eyes, and after a minute she mewled.

"What is it?" Moon asked.

Khalia hopped down from the rock and then bounded off, glancing back to make sure Moon would follow. She led her through the thin snow, down through a dark cluster of trees, past a narrow ravine, into a rough field full of thick brown grass. She came to a stop on a fallen log, glancing up at Moon in the hopes that she would be praised.

Moon paused. "What is it?"

Khalia hopped down, leading her to the edge of an enormous cliff - she remembered having scaled it a few days ago, before she'd found that cave, and she'd rather not have to scale it again, although Khalia seemed persistent. She could see the peak of Mount Danville (or whatever silly name it had, she thought to herself) off in the distance, and it seemed that was where she wanted to go.

Moon sat on the edge of the cliff, her feet hanging over the edge, and turned back to Khalia. "You want to go? Then go. I won't stop you."

Khalia only sat, and whined.

Moon shook her head. "I'm not going back there. I can't. I'm a wanderer."

Khalia just sat.

It was almost dinnertime and Isabella still hadn't returned. Ferb and Candace had been waiting all day for her; they had been joined briefly by Buford and Baljeet, but they had long since gone home. Now the sun was going down, marking the end of the second day Isabella had gone.

Candace was impatient, pacing back and forth in irritation. "What's taking her so long? When's she going to be back? Where the heck is Phineas, anyway?"

Ferb just sat, silent. He knew Phineas' three days were up. He knew that if they didn't find Moon soon he'd be killed. He wondered the same as Candace did where Isabella had gone, and if she was okay, but he was becoming more and more certain that she wasn't, and that something had happened to her. Why else would she have taken this long to come back? He could feel the knot in his stomach that had been there since yesterday - by now it had settled into him, and it was clear it wouldn't be coming out soon.

"I can't just sit here and wait for Isabella to come back," Candace resolved, "I'm going out to find her. You coming or not?"

Ferb nodded, getting quickly to his feet and following Candace out into the streets. Neither of them really had a clue where they would wind up, but since the last they'd seen of Isabella had been the forest by Shadowshire, they decided that would be a good place to start. Into the trees they went, heading steadily south, and after a few minutes the sun began to dip under the trees. Ignoring that, they continued. The trees soon gave way to a flat field, and skirting around that they followed the edge of a steep cliff that ran in a crooked line off into the horizon.

"Hey," Candace pointed out, breaking the mutual silence and startling Ferb a little, "What's this? D'you know?"

Ferb turned to her, and saw that she'd found some sort of abandoned machine. It looked like it had been here a while, since it had been half-buried in the dirt, but since it didn't have anything to do with Phineas or Isabella, Ferb just shrugged.

Candace led him along the cliffside, having discarded the old scrap metal, and after a time it was dark. The nearly-full moon rose without a sound, giving them a little light to see, and they continued.

"Hey," Candace whispered suddenly, "I'm getting kind of tired. You wanna find a place to sleep for a little bit? We can keep looking in the morning."

Ferb shook his head. His brother's life was at stake; he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

"Ugh," Candace grumbled, "Of course you would say that."

Ferb gave her a sour look, but continued along the cliff for a few minutes.

Candace crossed her arms, but followed him. Soon they came to an open field, occasionally broken by jutting rocks that sprouted up like teeth across the ground. Candace took the lead now, constantly tripping over the rocks but certain that they might find Isabella soon. She wished it was lighter out; at least she'd be able to see, and maybe she wouldn't have bruised her knee so badly on that last one. She noticed that Ferb seemed to be able to see a little better than she could - that, or he just fell down more quietly. Either way, she reasoned, they should have gone around the field. She didn't like it. Jamming her toes into yet another rock she growled, now angry, and finally just sat, refusing to go any further until she could see. "Why do these stupid rocks have to be so pointy, anyway? I think I just busted my toes on that one."

Ferb just sighed, taking a seat next to her without a word.

Candace was about to add something about her bruised knee (which she had also jammed several times) but just then she fell silent. Having spotted a particularly familiar shadow she scrambled over to it, and gave it a tiny poke with one finger.

It was warm.

Candace grinned. "Hey, Ferb! Get over here!" she called behind her shoulder, watching his black outline as he followed her command. She turned back, her eyes on the too-familiar point of her little brother's nose, and carefully put a hand on him. He was unconscious but not hurt, she found, and she scooped him up in her arms to take him home.

At her touch he woke, startled, and instinctively scrambled back, his first thought that he'd been found by a hungry bear or a wolf or something, and before he could stop himself he yelped.

"Phineas, it's just me," Candace told him, putting a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. She gave him a soft look. "Relax. Let's go home, okay?"

Phineas just sat for a moment as his heart rate returned to normal, then looked up at Candace. "What about Zhalgo?" he asked quietly, "I promised I wouldn't abandon him."

Candace faltered. "What?"

"We have to go back," Phineas insisted, staring up at her with huge innocent eyes. "Please?"

"Phineas, we have to go home. Isabella's out there somewhere looking for Moon and we haven't heard from her for two days. Come on, little bro," she pulled him gently to his feet and then up into her arms. "We can talk about this in the morning."

"But-"

"No buts," Candace told him, her voice quiet but firm, "Let's go home."

Phineas finally relented, curling tightly around Candace's shoulders without a word. Quickly he fell asleep, and Candace and Ferb brought him home.

It was late morning by the time Phineas woke, and he found that Ferb and Marissa were curled up on either side of him. His stomach growled fiercely, making Ferb glance over at him. "Hungry?"

Phineas nodded, slipping down a little under the covers and keeping his eyes on Ferb.

He only blinked, darting downstairs to go and find something for him to eat. He returned a few moments later with a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, handing it to Phineas and watching as he quickly wolfed it down. When he was finished, he turned back to Ferb. "Thanks."

Ferb just blinked again, taking the plate and setting it back down in the bed-table, and then turned back to Phineas without a word.

Marissa shifted into a sitting position, keeping her eyes on her brother. "Feeling better?"

Phineas nodded. "A little."

"Glad to hear that," Marissa gave him a small grin, "How'd you escape, anyway?"

Phineas was silent for a moment. He could think of little except Zhalgo, but he knew that after what had happened, Marissa wouldn't let him go out again. Finally he just sighed. "An old robot helped me," he said, "But now it's gone, and I want to bring it back."

Marissa frowned. "What do you mean, bring it back?" she asked, "You can't go out there again with this Six-Bolt guy on the loose."

"But I promised him I'd come back for him," Phineas protested, "If he hadn't got me out of there I might have been killed by now."

Marissa shook her head. "It's too dangerous."

"Please, I'll be careful, Ferb can come with me, but I have to go out and find Zhalgo," Phineas stared up at Marissa and, sure enough, she melted under his gaze.

"Alright," she said finally, "But take Ferb and Candace with you. It's not safe to be out there on your own."

Phineas nodded. "Come on, Ferb. We have to bring Zhalgo back. We can fix him, can't we?"

Ferb nodded. "We'll do the best we can."

Phineas led Ferb out of the house, with Candace close behind, and after a minute he turned to her. "Where did you find me last night?" he asked, "I wasn't really sure where I was but I know Zhalgo can't be too far from that."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Candace inquired, "I mean-"

Phineas nodded. "I promised Zhalgo I'd find him and take him home. I can't just leave him out there, anyway. What if that other robot finds him and kills him?"

"Okay, okay, we'll go find your robot friend," Candace put up her hands in defeat, giving Phineas a slightly unnerved look. "Let's just find it and then get home."

Phineas followed her and Ferb back to the edge of Shadowshire's overgrown lawn and then into the trees. Candace didn't quite remember the way they'd come - and even if she had, it was different in the sunlight - but she was certain that Phineas wouldn't let it go until he found that robot he kept mentioning.

After a few minutes she spotted the cliffside that she and Ferb had followed the night before, and she knew she was on the right track. After a minute she saw Phineas dart ahead, but before she could protest she spotted that old pile of scrap that she and Ferb had seen the previous night. This was Phineas' robot friend? It just looked like junk to her.

Then again, most of the boys' inventions did.

"Zhalgo!" Phineas cried, breaking into a run as he spotted the machine's broken remains jutting out of the hard earth. As he neared its head he collapsed onto his knees, reaching a shaky hand out to touch it. Despite his best efforts, tears welled up in his eyes as his fingers brushed Zhalgo's cold steel skin. "Zhalgo," he choked out, "I'm back for you."

There was only silence from Zhalgo. Since Phineas had left it, its power supply had long since run out, leaving it little more than a twisted sculpture in the wilderness.

But now that he was back its eyes slowly gave the faintest glow.


	11. Trade

**Hey, it's just me again. Sorry it's been so long, but I've been kind of intensely ridiculously busy lately so hopefully no one will be mad at me. Anyway, I'll probably update again soon, since I've got the rest of this thing written out, so please be a little patient. It'll only be a few days this time, I promise! :P**

* * *

><p>It was almost one o'clock by the time the boys and Candace returned home. They'd taken as many pieces of Zhalgo as they could salvage, although Phineas knew that what they could work with was limited and that they'd probably have to forge a few replacement parts. Before he could do that, however, they had to give Zhalgo a power supply so that it could see Phineas again. Although its eyes had begun to glow a little, Phineas knew that it wasn't fully active - it didn't seem to register that he was here, or anything else for that matter. Once it knew that it was safe he could begin the massive repair job.<p>

Candace had grumbled the whole way home, of course, but Phineas didn't really mind that. Candace complained about a great many things, and so he didn't take this as any different. He'd had the pieces taken to the garage (which was empty due to both Linda and Lawrence having left a few days ago for a business trip) and set Zhalgo's head on the workbench in the back. He was about to begin work when Marissa opened the back door and poked her head out into the garage. With the household phone in one hand, she glanced over at him. "It's Isabella's mom," she said, "She wants to talk to you."

"Missus Garcia-Shapiro?" Phineas frowned, "What's it about?"

Marissa just shrugged. "She just said she wanted to talk to you."

Phineas glanced back at Zhalgo, lying in several pieces on the floor, and then back at Marissa. He sighed. "Fine. But I don't want to spend all day talking to her."

Marissa just shrugged as he came inside and she handed him the phone. She knew not to intrude any further, and quickly disappeared upstairs.

"Hello? Missus Garcia-Shapiro?" Phineas asked a little nervously into the phone.

"Yes, is Isabella there?" came the voice from the other end, "She has not come home in days and I am beginning to worry."

Phineas stalled, his mind suddenly going blank. Finally he managed: "Um...what?"

"Is my Isa there?" Missus Garcia-Shapiro repeated, "Have you seen her?"

"I - I haven't, actually," Phineas replied a little uncertainly, "When was the last time she was home?"

"She has been missing for two nights, and I worry for her. Where could my Isa have gone?"

Before Phineas could answer, there was a spectacular crash from the garage, followed by the sharp clank of steel on steel. Phineas glanced back to the door, keeping his eyes on it as he spoke. "I'll have to call you back."

"But-"

"Something's come up," was all Phineas said before hanging the phone back in its place and opening up the door to the garage. What he saw made his eyes widen: two of that robot man's droids, each jumping up at the workbench like dogs begging for food. On top of the workbench was Candace, hiding behind Ferb as best she could. Ferb held a shovel in both hands, jabbing it down at the two droids in the hope to drive them away.

One of them spotted Phineas, and within seconds they both charged after him, quickly pinning him on his back on the cold cement floor. He could see the cameras mounted on them rotate slightly to come into focus, and both of them settled on him in mechanical silence.

One of them suddenly shattered apart, making Phineas flinch, and he looked up to see that Ferb had swung his shovel clear through it, the tip of the spade having missed him by less than an inch. He kept his eyes on the other droid, which quickly jumped off Phineas and scuttled out the open garage door and out of sight.

Ferb turned back to Phineas, offering him a hand and helping him back to his feet. He was certain that the droid would be back, probably with friends, so he kept the shovel in hand.

"Thanks, Ferb," Phineas said gratefully, giving his step-brother a slight bro-fist and then turning back to Candace. "I think you can come down now."

"Oh, right," said Candace a little sheepishly, hopping down from the workbench and avoiding eye contact.

Phineas turned back to Ferb. "Do you think they'll be back?"

Ferb nodded. "They're after you, bro."

"Yeah, I know," Phineas replied, a little dejected. He hopped up to sit on the edge of the workbench, his eyes fixed on one of the many tiny dings in the metal's otherwise-smooth surface. "And on top of this we have no idea where Isabella is. I mean we don't even know if she's okay, or - or if she's even still alive. For all we know she could have been caught, or eaten by the wolves, or-"

"Phineas, calm down," Candace told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "We'll find Isabella, okay? I bet she found a safe place out there."

Phineas was silent, clearly unconvinced by his sister's words, but nodded. He was certain that she'd been killed, either by that robot man or wild animals or any other thing, and now that he was next he had a heavy knot forming in his stomach, making him a little sick. Regardless, he knew he had to fight. He had to hold off until Moon came back. She'd come back and she'd take care of things. She always did, didn't she?

He wondered too about Zhalgo. Where had it come from? He was sure he could fix it, even though it didn't seem to have any blueprints, and after that he supposed he might keep it, as long as he could find a place for it to stay. He didn't think his mother would like the idea of a giant robot living in the backyard - maybe he could keep it in the woods outside Moon's house. There was plenty of room there. In the meantime, it had to be repaired. It had taken serious damage from its fall, and Phineas knew he owed it his life for what it had done for him. He had to repay it.

So he and Ferb began work. He began with the head while Ferb sorted through the other pieces, using a chisel to chip away enough rusted metal to be able to open up the back of its head and take a look at what was inside. He could see its old battery pack, rechargeable but corroded, surrounded by dozens of tiny intricate gears and cogs. It looked like clockwork, although much of it had been rusted in place, and he knew he had a long day ahead of him. Regardless, he sat and patiently began taking a few of the upper gears apart so that they could be cleaned. He was careful - more so than he usually was when building something small - as he didn't want to disrupt Zhalgo's inner workings too much. He didn't have a blueprint, after all, and so his only guide was how it looked when it was complete. That wasn't what worried him, though; he'd built things from scratch before, but there were so many tiny pieces that he was sure that it would take hours, days, even, to finish the repairs.

He'd just finished replacing the battery pack when Candace called him and Ferb inside for dinner. He quickly reassembled the surrounding gears and cogs, screwing the now-shining back plate of Zhalgo's head into place and following Ferb inside. He ate in silence, mostly because he had a lot on his mind but also partly because Candace's attempt at salisbury steak was less than desirable and he didn't want to have to say anything bad about that. Soon as he was finished, he and Ferb headed back out to the garage.

He found that Zhalgo had powered up, staring back at him with its intense eyes. Now that it had fresh batteries they glowed brighter than they had before, and as it spotted him Zhalgo gave an enthusiastic squeal.

Phineas grinned. "Hey, Zhalgo," he said quietly, putting a hand on the side of its head, "I told you I'd come and fix you up. I told you that, didn't I?"

Zhalgo agreed with a low grind, grateful that Phineas had brought it here. It was glad to be away from that dark cave after so many years that it had spent there, and it was glad that it had come into the hands of this little living creature. It knew it would be much happier with him.

Phineas smiled. "We still have a lot of work to do, you know. You could have been destroyed jumping off that cliff like that. Good thing Ferb and I can help."

Zhalgo just stared, now silent. It found it might want to just watch, since it currently wasn't operable. It wouldn't be for a while, it thought. It could see its arms and its cage and its wings and its tail lying in assorted pieces throughout the garage. Most of them were mangled and twisted, all of them rusted, and although its friend Phineas and this other boy worked quickly, it would be several more hours before they would be finished.

Phineas knew he had to work quickly. If he could get Zhalgo's wings working again, he could go out and search for Isabella. He had to.

A sudden noise behind him made him jump. Turning back to the rest of the garage, he could see three of Six-Bolt's spider-robots, sitting at the edge of the garage without a sound. After a minute they were joined by three more.

Phineas' eyes widened. Reaching one hand behind him he found the shovel that Ferb had used to fight them off earlier, and he handed it to Ferb, grabbing another one for himself.

There was only tense silence for a few moments as at least a dozen more of the little droids assembled, sitting ominously on the sidewalk without a sound other than the metallic click of their steel claws against the concrete. Soon there were twenty of them, far too many for the boys to fight off even together, but for a long time they just sat, watching. It vaguely reminded Phineas of something he'd seen in an old Hitchcock movie, and if that was any indicator of what would happen next, he knew he had to fight.

Suddenly the door opened and Candace came out, holding a small piece of cake in each hand. She set them down on the side of the workbench, not having noticed the droids that had accumulated just outside, and then turned to the boys. "There's cake for you if - oh," she faltered, the droids catching her eye, and just stood for a moment, now silent.

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement as the droids attacked, swarming the garage and quickly driving the boys back.

Candace shrieked, quickly jumping up onto the workbench and finding a wrench that she could use to fend them off as best she could. She hit one of them as it made a leap for her, and she could see the boys with their shovels doing the same.

The droids had far outnumbered them. Within seconds the boys had been driven back to the workbench as well, and three of the droids quickly pulled Ferb's shovel away from him. They advanced, ignoring Phineas and swarming over Ferb instead, collectively dragging him down.

"Ferb, no!" Phineas exclaimed, grabbing his hand and pulling him back, "Leave him alone!"

Candace took Ferb's other hand and smashed one of the droids with the wrench she'd found, pulling him up onto the workbench. With him came several other droids, reluctant to let him go so easily, and several more swarmed over Phineas and Candace as well.

Phineas scrambled back, dropping Ferb's hand but unable to free himself from the droids. Realizing this he grabbed Candace's hand instead, kicking one of the droids away and pulling her closer to him. He reached suddenly into his pocket, having thought of an escape from this, and glanced back at Candace. "Hold on!"

"I'm losing him!" Candace cried, pushing two droids away and clamping harder onto Ferb's hand. Regardless, she could feel it slipping and it wouldn't be much longer before he would be lost.

Phineas grabbed the cell phone he and Ferb had made a few weeks ago, quickly clicking it on and keeping it tight in his hand as it took a few seconds to warm up.

"Phineas, hurry!" Candace exclaimed, "I can't-"

Phineas turned back to the phone and demanded, "Go to Isabella!"

Instantly they were gone. Phineas just sat, frozen for a moment, with Candace's hand clamped hard in his own. It was cold here, and after a moment he realized he could see his breath - but at least the droids had gone, he reasoned.

But then he realized Ferb was gone too.


	12. Zhalgo's Secret

He could see only darkness for a minute, but as his eyes began to adjust he could make out Candace's outline sitting next to him. It took him a moment for him to catch his breath, but then he turned back to her, his eyes wide. "Where's Ferb?"

Candace shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry. I couldn't hold onto him."

Phineas just hung his head. He knew he'd have to go back; those robots had taken his brother. He couldn't leave him with them.

"Phineas?" came a squeaky voice behind him.

He turned. He could see Isabella sitting across from him, the cold remnants of a dead bonfire between them. She'd been wrapped in a deerskin, by the looks of it, but despite that she shivered. Her huge eyes were locked on him.

"Isabella?" Phineas whispered, taking a moment to realize what had happened but then scrambling over to her and throwing his arms around her. "You're okay! Ferb said you disappeared a few days ago and you hadn't come back and I thought maybe something happened but now you're okay and-"

"Phineas, calm down," Isabella said with a grin, returning his hug, "I'm fine. I was worried for you too."

Phineas paused. "Yeah?"

Isabella nodded. "After that weird robot thing kidnapped you I went out looking for Moon. They said if we didn't bring her back home they'd kill you."

"It's okay now. Another robot helped me escape. I'm okay," Phineas gave her a tiny smile, sitting by her with the deerskin. It was a little bit slimy on one side, but he wasn't really worried about that.

A sudden shadow fell over the cavern's opening and the three of them looked up to see Moon, carrying three dead rabbits in one hand and her hunting blade in the other. Noticing Phineas and Candace, she cocked an eyebrow.

"Hi, Moon!" Phineas exclaimed, giving her a small grin.

Moon slid down into the cavern, tossing the rabbits aside and setting her blade back in its sheath. She gave Phineas an inquisitive look. "Where'd you come from? I didn't find any trace you'd been by."

"It's my phone," Phineas explained, "It can teleport."

Moon had no comment; she would no longer question the weird things he said. Instead she just sat. "Okay, boy."

"Well a big hello to you too," Candace crossed her arms, giving Moon a sour look, "Do I even exist now?"

Moon ignored her, her eyes still on Phineas. "What are you doing here? From what your little friend told me he'd taken you."

"I escaped," he shrugged, "I met a nice robot and he helped me."

Moon huffed. "Well that explains it, then."

"Seriously?" Isabella glared from her place by the fire-pit, "You're not even glad that he's safe now?"

Moon shot Isabella a dirty look. "I told you already. I can't."

"Enough already!" Isabella demanded, crossing her arms, "You're always like this! You don't care about anyone except yourself!"

"Maybe that's how I've been able to survive so long on my own. Otherwise - guess what - I might be lying dead in a ditch somewhere. How's that suit you?"

Isabella thought that would suit her just fine, but she wouldn't say so. She knew Moon would probably slaughter her if she did, without so much as a second thought. She was a heathen and that was what heathens did. Instead she just glared. "You could at least be glad to see that your friend is okay, you know. Don't you feel anything-"

"_He's not my friend_," Moon growled, her voice suddenly fierce. She gave Isabella a hard glare that made her a little uneasy, her teeth half-bared in irritation. "I've told you enough times I don't have any friends. Not after the two that I'd lost."

"What do you mean two?" Isabella demanded, "You said this robot guy's the only friend you had!"

Phineas interrupted: "Umm, am I missing something-?"

Moon and Isabella both ignored him. "I said he was the only human friend," Moon snapped, "But he's not even human anymore and Zhalgo's long gone anyway so it doesn't even matter, does it? Why do you care so much, anyway? You hate me. You wouldn't have a problem if I just went on and disappeared. If it wasn't for your friend you'd try and drive me away yourself, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, and not without a good reason!" Isabella retorted, crossing her arms and stamping one foot on the cold cavern floor. "You're a jerk! You don't even care about anyone else except yourself!"

"Hold on a minute!" Phineas cried suddenly, silencing them both. He gave Moon a look that was impossible for her to place, like a combination of worry, hope, and wonder. When he spoke again, his voice was a little more quiet. "Moon...how do you know about Zhalgo?"

The question caught her off-guard, and she faltered. After a moment she glanced back at him, her eyes narrow. "What do _you_ know about Zhalgo? Where is it? Is it okay?"

Phineas nodded without a word.

Moon slowly let out her breath in a relieved sigh. "Okay," she said, keeping her eyes low, "I suppose you're curious-"

"How much do you know about Zhalgo?" Phineas interrupted before he could stop himself, "Where did it come from? Why was it left behind? How long had it been there?"

"One at a time, boy," Moon snapped, but then softened. So much went through her mind: she hadn't heard Zhalgo's name in years, and where else does it turn up but this kid, of course, none other. For a long time she was silent.

"Moon?" Phineas asked, sliding a little closer to her, his eyes locked on her. He reached out a hand to put on her shoulder but before he could touch her she turned back to him. "Zhalgo was the only thing that he'd ever given me - he built it for my eleventh birthday. I kept it close and eventually I guess I trusted it a little, even after Six-Bolt had gone. But then when I was thirteen it disappeared. I spent three weeks looking for it, but it had just gone. I haven't heard about it in so long, I just..." her voice trailed off, and she turned away, now silent.

Phineas too was quiet, his eyes wide. After a moment he whispered, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because you didn't need to know," Moon told him, "I don't need you. I can't depend on anyone."

Phineas sat a little closer to her, his eyes tracing any small movements she made. "Moon, listen. This is different. We're not out to hurt you, I promise."

Moon turned to him, her eyes narrow and watchful. "A week after I'd met Six-Bolt he told me the same thing. He said we'd be friends, and that I didn't have to worry about anything happening between us. It lasted for less than a year until he tried to kill me."

Phineas was silent. He worried for Moon, now having learned a little more about her. He could see why she was so hesitant to trust anyone, especially someone who wanted to be her friend, but he was certain he could help her - if she'd let him. Convincing her of that would be the hardest part. What could he do? She wouldn't trust what he'd tell her, and she'd probably counter any of his ideas with her own - and her conclusions would probably involve destroying things. He didn't blame her for that, but he did wish she could be a little less violent sometimes. It seemed that her solutions always involved her knife, and although she was very good with it, she didn't see that there were other ways to deal with things.

For now, though, he had to earn at least a little bit of trust from her. Looking back up at her he asked her, "What if we could help you face him?"

Moon snorted. "No offense but you don't strike me as the type that could fight him."

"Maybe we don't have to fight him," Phineas told her, watching carefully to see her reaction.

She just shrugged. "He's not going to drop dead on his own. If we don't kill him he could do any number of things to your brother."

Phineas didn't have an answer to that. He could only hope that Ferb was okay - he reasoned that Six-Bolt would keep him there, same as he had done with Phineas, but he knew that he wouldn't be as forgiving with the rest of them. Maybe Ferb was already dead.

He didn't really want to think about that.

"What about Zhalgo?" Moon's words startled him out of his thoughts, and he turned back to her. "What?"

"What about Zhalgo?" Moon repeated. "Where is it?"

"We took him back to the garage. He's in pretty bad shape but I could fix him up for you if you wanted to see him."

Moon nodded. "I might like that."


	13. Sacrifice

It was dark by the time they got back to the Flynn-Fletcher house. Phineas had sent Isabella inside to give her mother a call, since they'd been contacted by her earlier and she needed to know that her daughter was alright. He was glad that it was warm again; after the persistent cold of the mountain cave he just sat outside for a few minutes to warm up. He could see Perry sitting on the back step, seemingly bored, and he watched him for a few moments as he waddled over and gave his signature chatter. Phineas tried to mimic it, since he would like to learn to speak platypus, but he sounded nothing like Perry and instead just sighed. "I don't know if we're going to get Ferb back," he said, as if Perry could even understand him, let alone give him any advice. He scooped the platypus up in his arms, settling him in his lap and scratching the back of his head absently. "I don't suppose you could get him, could you, Perry? You're small enough that I think you could sneak in and bring him back," he paused for a moment, considering, and then quietly smiled to himself. "Of course, you'd probably be scared of the giant robot, wouldn't you, boy?"

Perry blinked.

"Me too," Phineas agreed.

The back door opened behind them, startling Perry and making him scamper away, and Phineas turned to see Moon standing in the doorway. She was just a dark silhouette against the lights in the house, and Phineas had to squint for a minute so that his eyes could adjust. "I want to see Zhalgo," she told him.

Phineas sighed, then nodded. "He's in the garage. Follow me."

Moon was silent as she followed him through the house and out to the garage. She could see Zhalgo's massive head, dormant, connected to a power cord that ran down the length of the workbench to an outlet on the side. It was still in need of work; although the outer panels had been cleaned, the inside would take much longer to repair. Its other pieces, too, needed several hours for even Phineas to fix, although he knew that if his brother was here it would go much more quickly.

Phineas glanced back at Moon, watching her to see how she would react. He wasn't really sure what to expect, but he did expect at least _some_thing from her.

Moon only stood, silent. Her eyes were blank, her expression unreadable, and for a long time she just stood without a word.

"Moon?" Phineas whispered, staring up at her with his huge innocent eyes, "Moon, I'll fix him, I'll put him back together, I promise," he took one of her hands, tugging her over to where Zhalgo's dormant head sat. He kept his eyes on her, but he was certain now that he'd get no reaction from her. Why, he wondered. Why wouldn't she say anything? It seemed she had completely stalled out inside; she just stood, without words or movement, as if her mind had suddenly gone vacant.

"Moon, I-"

"It's been years," Moon said quietly. She tried to keep her voice even, but Phineas found in it several mixed undertones. He couldn't place all of them, but he knew to take a hint and slid his hand out of Moon's, taking a step back.

"I'll just leave you alone for a few minutes," he told her, darting quickly back into the house and closing the door silently behind him.

"What's with her?" Candace asked from the living room, "Not that I care or anything, but-"

"She needs a few minutes to herself," Phineas told her, taking a seat on the living room sofa and watching Perry as he hopped up into his lap.

Candace frowned but didn't say anything. She knew that once Phineas got an idea into his head, it was impossible to stop him unless she offered a better one - which, currently, she didn't have. She just sat next to him and sighed. "You still think Moon can be your friend, don't you?"

Phineas nodded. "She's a good person, Candace. Why can't you see that?"

"Phineas, she cares more about that stupid robot than about you," Candace told him, "I don't-"

"Zhalgo's not stupid," he interrupted, shooting Candace a quick glare before softening his gaze. "He saved me from being killed. If it wasn't for him I'd probably be dead, okay? Don't be so cynical all the time. You don't like the robot, and you don't like Moon. Can't you see that she's just a little weird? There's nothing wrong with that."

"Did you forget about the time she tried to kill you?" Candace put in before he could continue.

"She didn't mean it," Phineas defended after a moment's hesitation, "She's not a bad person, okay? She's just not used to Danville yet. She needs a friend-"

"No, I don't," came Moon's voice from the doorway, making both of them jump. Her face was still blank, and her voice was quiet when she spoke. "I have to go."

"Where are you going?" Phineas asked, "You're not leaving Danville, are you? What about Ferb? What about Zhalgo? You can't go-"

Moon looked down at him, her eyes dull and blank, almost as if she refused to let any detail slip about what she was thinking. "I won't be back," was all she said before turning and heading away into the night.

"But-" Phineas protested, darting after her into the front hall, but she had already gone, leaving him standing in the doorway. His mind ground to a halt. Where would she go? What would happen to Zhalgo? _What would happen to Ferb?_ That question ran through his mind over and over, making his head spin, and along with everything else that had happened, his mind overloaded. He swayed off to one side and then passed out.

She knew she was close. Her skills as a huntress had proven useful once again, even though she was looking not for a meal but instead for a monster. If it hadn't been for Zhalgo she would have gone already; as it was she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that the boy had found it. It had been so long now she'd almost forgotten about it - well, as much as she could forget about the only thing she'd cared for that hadn't betrayed her. She knew that things would be different after this. If she survived, she'd at least get to see Zhalgo again. She would find out why it had run away, and why it had never come back. She would find out what exactly had happened between it and Phineas; all she knew at this point was that it had been horribly damaged. She wasn't really sure if Phineas could fix it, since there were no written plans or designs for the thing, but she knew it would be better off in his hands than in hers. She was too rough with things; she was better at killing and destroying than she was at creating new things.

That was okay with her.

She stood now at the edge of a huge cliff, staring up at the point where it seemed to touch the sky. The face of the rock was rough-cut; she knew she'd have no problem getting up to the top. Sliding her knife into its sheath on her belt, she grabbed the rough stone in both hands and climbed.

By the time she reached the top it was threatening daylight, and she could see the sky slowly light up a bright red, then pink and orange. She sat for a few minutes to watch, since she wasn't sure if she would be able to again, and then headed into the crooked cavern that ran deeper into the side of the cliff.

Inside it was dark, and with the darkness came a dank earthy smell that hung in the air, making the place seem to close in around her. Her tank-top and bare arms were soon spotted with tiny droplets, and for a few moments she waited inside for her eyes to adjust as best they could to the dark. The pendant on her choker glowed faintly, not enough for her to fully see but just for her to make out a few close outlines of the cavern. That had to be good enough.

She continued, her footsteps silent against the bare rock, her ears catching the sound of a steady dripping that came from somewhere close-by. Apart from that it was quiet, except for a tiny hum that had settled on a pitch that she couldn't replicate. It sounded mechanical to her, and she didn't like it - she knew little about it, where it came from, what it was - she much preferred the steady drone of the summer birds or the crickets in the night.

A sudden light blinded her, making her shield her eyes with one hand. After a minute she took a step back; she'd run into the mechanized monster: Six-Bolt, easily ten times as tall as she was, covered in huge metal plating and heavy steel rivets. His engine fired up with a roar, making the lights of his eyes glow all the brighter, and dark black smoke fumed up from two thick tailpipes behind his shoulders. With one hand he grabbed her, before she could even turn to run, and held her up flat on his palm. His voice was rough when he spoke, metallic and grinding like the sound of a boulder running down a mountain. "You're here," he rumbled, "It's been so long."

She was silent. She knew he couldn't hear her heart pounding - how could he, over the sound of his own? - and so she let it. With any sort of luck, she'd be able to slip away from him. She knew that big things moved very slowly, and so she could easily outmaneuver him.

"You're doing well, I see," the monster continued, "I assume you've come to release your little-boy friend?"

She glared up at him. "He's not my friend. You were the only real friend I'd had."

"That's not entirely true, is it?" he chuckled, taking on a distinctly Jabba-like tone, "You had that little machine of yours. I saw how much you cared about it. You loved it-"

"You know I can't do that. I can't. I was born to kill. There is no place for love in that."

The machine pondered this for a moment, giving a loud rumble of consideration, and then spoke: "I suppose you're right. A girl like you can only destroy, never create. But that's not why you've come, is it? You want the boy to be released..."

She nodded. "He's no use to you anymore."

"You're certainly right about that," the massive machine conceded, reaching up with his other hand and plucking the boy from a small space he'd been given in a stalactite. He held him between two fingers like an insect, and she could see that he was shaking slightly. "I take it you'd like to say good-bye to him?"

She nodded. She watched the boy drop, and she caught him as he came down to her. She could see in his eyes that he was terrified, and she could feel him shaking as she set both her hands firmly on his shoulders. She held his stare until he began to settle, neither of them saying a word. Finally she spoke, her voice quiet: "You help your brother fix Zhalgo up. Promise me."

He hesitated a moment, but then nodded.

She gave a silent sigh of relief, closing her eyes and then taking a deep breath. She knew now that it didn't matter what happened to her. Zhalgo would be okay.

The metal giant rumbled deeply, the joints giving a collective metallic grind as they worked in unison to pick the boy up. He grabbed Moon's hands, holding on in reluctance to be taken, and glanced briefly back at her. "I'll be back," was all he had time to say before he was pulled away from her. He was set a little roughly on the cold ground far below, and he knew he had to run. Even as he turned toward the cavern's opening he could hear several dozen little machines coming after him, chasing him away from the place, and almost without thought now he ran.

By the time he got home it was almost noon. He was exhausted; he'd run almost the entire way back from the cliffside after climbing the long way down, only pausing once to catch his breath. As he spotted the gate to their backyard, he knew he wouldn't make it into the house. Instead he collapsed under the tree in the backyard and fell instantly asleep.

The sound of his brother's voice startled him awake, and his eyes snapped instantly open. They took a second to focus, but he could see Phineas sitting over him, both his huge eyes on him, unblinking. "Ferb?"

Ferb blinked, slowly propping himself up against the tree and then yawning.

"You've been asleep almost all day," Phineas told him, "I didn't want to bother you but it's getting dark out and Candace said you should come inside."

Ferb just nodded, still quite sleepy, and slowly got to his feet to follow his brother into the house.

"I was really worried for you," Phineas told him, offering him a hand to help him up, "How'd you escape?"

As his mind began to clear he suddenly remembered exactly what had happened. He turned back to his brother. "He let me go."

Phineas' eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"Moon gave in to him," Ferb told him, "And I promised we'd get her back."


	14. Robot Riot

"No."

"But Candace-"

"No. You're not going back out there and picking a fight. The robot's got what he wants. Just leave him alone now!"

"But what about Moon?" Phineas protested.

"What about her? This was all because of her anyway. If she hadn't showed up none of this would have happened," Candace told him.

Phineas frowned. "Don't you get it? She needs our help. We can't just sit here and let him kill her."

"Well then maybe she shouldn't have gone-"

"Don't you dare say that!" Phineas shot her a glare, curling both his hands into tight fists, "If she hadn't gone then Ferb might be dead! But you don't understand that, do you? All you do is criticize Moon because you can't understand anything else!"

Candace faltered. "But I - I didn't mean it-"

"Yes you did, Candace, you meant it," Phineas snapped. He could feel his face beginning to turn a bright red, and he held his glare. Finally he turned to Ferb. "Go and get Zhalgo ready. We're going to get Moon back."

Ferb nodded, quickly darting out to the garage. Phineas followed, shooting Candace another glare before turning back to the garage. When he spoke to Ferb his voice was neutral. "How does Zhalgo look?"

Ferb stepped aside to allow Phineas a closer look at his work. He'd dissected Zhalgo's head, and he'd gotten through cleaning about half the pieces. There were several sketches that he'd made that were strewn about the workbench; he'd drawn what he'd seen before he began work in the hope that it would help him put it back together when he was finished.

Phineas just nodded. "It'll have to do for now. You start putting him back together and I'll do the best I can with the bodywork."

Ten minutes later they'd finished with Zhalgo, and Phineas took a step back to look it over before it was powered up. It wasn't in one piece; they hadn't had enough time to finish the repairs, but Phineas knew that they would have more time later. Its cage had been welded together, and both its arms attached, but its wings and its tail had been piled in pieces in the corner. Its fingers were still horribly mangled, and one of its arms wouldn't quite lie straight, but Phineas seemed satisfied with it and reached up to the switch he'd installed under its head to turn it on.

Zhalgo just sat for a moment and then came to life, its eyes glowing an iridescent amber-white as it slowly became more aware. It glanced down at Phineas, giving an elated screech, and reached with one mangled hand to pick him up.

Phineas smiled. "It's okay, Zhalgo. We'll fix you up, but there's something you have to help us with."

Zhalgo stared down at Phineas, its head giving a quiet creak as it cocked to one side.

"Moon is in trouble," Phineas told it, "We need you to help save her."

Zhalgo was silent. It stared down at Phineas for a long time, the gears in its head clicking away as it processed what he had said. He knew its mistress - from that it could trust him, as if it hadn't already, and it knew it had to help him. It could see that it had only been partially repaired, but it had to save its mistress if she was in trouble.

"Zhalgo?" Phineas asked.

Zhalgo nodded. It had to help. It had to see its mistress again.

Phineas took a deep breath. "Alright," he said, "Come on. There's not much time."

Zhalgo pulled Phineas up into its cage, and then Ferb with him, and then they headed away into the wildlands outside of Danville. Phineas knew the way fairly well by now, after having been out so many times, and in a few minutes Zhalgo had taken them up the cliffside and out to the entrance of the cavern where Six-Bolt made his home. He could hear the monstrous engine from somewhere inside, although the sound was quiet, and he stood for a moment at the edge to try and see into the darkness.

He could feel Ferb's hand slip into his own, and he turned back to him briefly. He was scared too, but he knew he had to save Moon. Turning back to the dark cavern, he carefully ventured inside.

The sudden click of a machine caught his attention, and he looked down to see one of the hundreds of spider-robots, staring at him as if sizing him up. After a moment it pounced, latching quickly onto Phineas as it scrambled to find a choke-hold on him, but Phineas was faster and after a moment he pinned it down. It struggled uselessly under his hold but he wouldn't let it go. He turned to Ferb. "D'you think we can get into its system?"

Ferb pulled a screwdriver from his back pocket, which he used to open up the back panel of the machine and access the circuitry inside. Pulling one of the wires out, the machine instantly fell limp in Phineas' hands and he set it down so that he could get a closer look at what was inside.

"It looks easy enough to just rewire the thing," he said as he cocked an eyebrow, "I wouldn't mind having a few of these things on our side. What do you think, Ferb?"

Ferb just nodded.

Phineas turned back to the dormant robot, quickly fixing its circuitry so that it wouldn't attack them anymore, and then set the last wire back in place to power it up. Ferb replaced the access panel and then slid the screwdriver back into his pocket, his eyes on the robot as Phineas set it down onto the cavern floor.

The robot just stood, staring up at him with its blank camera eye.

"Go and bring another robot," Phineas told it, waiting to see if it would listen to him. He hadn't wired it to do so, but he wanted to see how far he could go with it and so he just sat and watched.

The robot quickly scampered off, returning with an inquisitive partner a moment later. That one too was rewired, and when they were done Phineas turned back to his brother. "We can't possibly do this to all of them; there's not enough time. Do you have any better ideas?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Hmm," Phineas put a thoughtful hand to his chin, looking back at the two robots that he had fixed, and frowned. "Do you think maybe they could help?"

Without a sound the spider-robots scurried off, returning a moment later with a third one. After it joined the first two, Phineas stood in front of them. "What else can you do? How many of you are there?"

The three of them just sat, silent.

"Of course not," Phineas sighed, "You're not going to answer me. I suppose we just take Zhalgo and look for Moon, then."

Zhalgo gave a grind of protest, reluctant to go back into the place where it had been left for so long, but after a moment it followed the boys further into the cavern. The glow from its eyes lit their way as they went along, but the place was eerily quiet; there seemed to be no sign of either Moon or Six-Bolt anywhere.

"Moon?" Phineas called, his voice echoing off the deep cavern and coming back to him in a quiet whisper. For a minute there was no response, but then the mechanical clicking of the spider-bots caught Ferb's attention and he took a step back, his eyes shifting up to a low-hanging stalactite where several dozen of them had gathered. Reaching back he found Phineas' sleeve, giving it a small tug and then pointing up to the swarm of robots over them.

"Umm, Ferb?" Phineas squeaked, "Run."

Before anything else could be said they attacked, and Zhalgo scooped the boys up in its cage before turning to run. Since it hadn't been fully repaired, its gait was uneven and rickety, but it was able to keep easily ahead of the spider-bots and after a moment it ducked into a side tunnel in the hope to evade them. It shut its glowing eyes, hoping to throw them off track, but they weren't so easily diverted; they nearly doubled in number as more of them joined the chase.

"Zhalgo, just run!" Phineas exclaimed, keeping both hands tight around the bars of its cage to steady himself as the slender machine fled. In a flat-out chase, the spider-bots were no match for them; they couldn't keep up and quickly fell behind in the darkness of the cavern.

"I think we lost them," Phineas glanced back behind them just to make sure, and Zhalgo settled with a quiet creak on the cold ground so that the boys could be let out of its cage. They both slid easily to the ground below, and Phineas turned back to Zhalgo. "Now what?" he asked, "We still have no idea where Moon is-"

As if on cue, the distinct sound of a monstrous engine echoed up from further down the tunnel, and the sound of it made Ferb's spine tingle. "That's him."

"Then let's go. Come on, Zhalgo," Phineas turned down the tunnel, using the glow from Zhalgo's eyes to see, and led both it and Ferb further into the cavern. It was noticeably warmer here, which, he was certain, was due to Six-Bolt's enormous engine throwing off so much heat, and as they went deeper into the darkness the sound came ever-closer. Phineas could see a thin crack of light ahead, and he approached quietly in case the steel monster would spot him.

Zhalgo gave a small whine, inquisitive, and crept closer to the crack in the rock so that it too could see, but it quickly drew back from what it saw: its former master, Six-Bolt, holding one of an array of nasty-looking tools, and six of his spider-bot lackeys with him. It gave Phineas a nervous look, reluctant to face the monster, and slowly backed away from him.

Phineas glanced back at it and sighed. "Zhalgo, come on. What if Moon's in there-?"

His voice was cut off by the sudden roar of Six-Bolt's engine inside, bringing with it a blast of hot exhaust fumes that made Phineas cough and take a step back. He could feel the ground rumble under him as the giant spoke: "I've wanted to do this for a long time, you know. You ruined me. You made me into this."

Moon's voice followed, more quietly: "This wasn't my fault-"

"Liar," Six-Bolt snapped, "If it wasn't for you I might still be human. Perhaps I should just return the favor..."

Zhalgo knew it couldn't face the monster. Even if it could, there was no chance it could beat him-but its mistress was in there, and if nothing was done she could be badly hurt. Its eyes narrowed in determination and it pried the rocks apart, giving it more room than the small crack it had been given. With a terrible screech it approached Six-Bolt, rocking a little on its thin arms as it did so, and rammed him, sending him a step back but leaving him undamaged.

"Zhalgo!" Six-Bolt exclaimed, "You think you can save your little friend? She's mine now. Look what she did to me. She made me into this."

Zhalgo took a step forward, its eyes locked on Six-Bolt with a fiery rage, and with a shriek it opened up its grinning mouth to reveal a set of newly sharpened steel teeth. It rammed the giant again, this time harder, and stamped one mangled hand down on the warm cavern floor. Without hesitation it advanced again, this time not to go after the monster but its mistress, for it knew that it had to help her escape.

It had to prove to her that it could still be useful.

Before it could reach her, Six-Bolt attacked, both its massive fists smashing through Zhalgo's cage almost without effort as he pulled it up off the ground. Steel ground against steel as Zhalgo slammed its head back, using both wiry arms to scrape at the thinner armor around Six-Bolt's collar. It found a catch in the steel and yanked as hard as it could, deforming the metal with a furious squeal and locking the giant's head into place.

"You think you can stop me, scrap?" Six-Bolt rumbled, opening up its saurian jaws and unleashing a harsh burst of fire that sent Zhalgo back, the hundreds of gears in its head clicking louder now that the heat had distorted their delicate fit. Zhalgo could feel them jamming, and it knew that it didn't stand a chance of winning this fight. It knew too that it didn't have a choice. It pounced, its jagged teeth bared, but the giant slammed it down and then sent another inferno that stalled its workings completely and made it lie still.

"Zhalgo!" Phineas cried, darting suddenly out from where he and Ferb had been hiding. He couldn't come too close or the hot metal would burn him, but he didn't care. He sat by it, seeing the dark smoke rising from its broken frame. Its wings had only been partially repaired, jutting out from the back of its cage, seeming to channel the heat like two sharp smokestacks on a twisted steel demon.

"You!" Six-Bolt roared, snatching Phineas up in one quick movement, holding him up in front of his glaring headlight eyes, "What makes you think you're so special? What makes you think you can stop me from having what I want?"

Phineas just stared, petrified, but then finally found his voice: "Y-you can't hurt her, I-"

"You'll stop me?" the giant growled, a hint of amusement in his voice, "Do you have any idea how long I've waited for her? She didn't tell you she made me like this, did she? This is her fault. If it hadn't been for her, I would still be human! Look at me! I'm a monster! I was forced to create this new body because she destroyed me! She deserves nothing less than the same!"

"But you can't-"

Six-Bolt roared, hot jets of blue flame shooting up from the tailpipes behind his shoulders, and threw Phineas back, his yellow headlight eyes glaring with an inhuman fury. "Perhaps you should join me," he growled, "Then you can see what it's like to see yourself wither away."

Phineas scrambled back, his eyes locked on the iron monster, and then he turned to run, knowing he couldn't possibly be fast enough but hoping that he would be allowed to escape. Returning to the place where he and Ferb had been hiding before, he paused a moment to turn to him, but - Ferb was gone. "Ferb!?"

"Don't expect him to save you," Six-Bolt rumbled, catching Phineas again and holding him up impossibly high over the rocky cavern ground. "You should have kept out of my way. Why is she so important to you, anyway? She's just a wild killer."

"She - she's my friend," Phineas stammered, squirming but unable to free himself. A flash of movement caught his attention and his eyes flicked over to Ferb, who had taken one of the commandeered spider-bots with him. He was with Moon, who'd been tied and kept in a small cage in the corner, and he worked quickly to free her.

"You would rather suffer with her than run home?" asked the monster, "You're just a fool."

Phineas glanced back at him, silent. Of all the things he could think at that moment, he couldn't help but wonder what his mother would think if Six-Bolt would get his way with him, and they would all go home like robots. He knew it wasn't the right thing to think just then, but for the life of him he couldn't think of anything else. He could only stare up at the mechanical monster, without a word.

A sudden click behind him made him jump, and he looked down to see that Zhalgo was slowly becoming active, having cooled off enough to allow its inner-workings to function. Now aware of itself it got quickly to its feet, before Six-Bolt could protest, and grabbed a heavy panel of steel armor, ripping it slowly up and throwing him slightly off-balance.

"You again," Six-Bolt growled, "You wouldn't dare attack me - not when I have _this_," he opened up one hand to show Phineas inside, and Zhalgo drew back with a defeated whine. The monster was right; it couldn't risk Phineas' life.

Regardless, it had to save its mistress. It lunged again, aiming for Six-Bolt's throat, but he was faster, and slammed Zhalgo down. It hit the ground, mangled, crumpling into an inactive heap no longer able to function.

"Zhalgo, no!" Phineas exclaimed, squirming to break free of Six-Bolt's hold. To his surprise he was able to pull himself out, and he scrambled quickly up onto the giant's shoulder, gave Ferb a brief glance, and then ran down to the broken panel that Zhalgo had opened for him. Grabbing a fistful of circuitry inside, he yanked it out as hard as he could.

Almost instantly the monstrosity fell.


	15. Death of a MonsterReturn to Shadowshire

Slowly the dust began to settle. Phineas lay dazed in the middle of it; the iron monster had brought him a long way down in its collapse and if he hadn't clung onto it so tightly he might have been crushed under its massive form. As his mind began to clear he sat up, cringing from the pain in his head, and glanced around. He could see Moon, now freed, standing over him, and for a long time they both just stared at each other without a word.

A sudden pop from behind Phineas made him jump. He turned and saw that the front panel of Six-Bolt's armor was slowly sliding open. Inside he could see a small boy, easily twice his age but thin and shriveled - his eyes had sunken almost impossibly far into his head; what little hair he had was thin and wispy; his legs sat crookedly to one side, hardly skin and bone; even under his dark blue t-shirt his ribs were clearly visible. Despite this, his eyes were intense as he stared out at Phineas without a word.

When Phineas spoke, his voice was cracked and quiet. "Why?"

Six-Bolt's voice was the same. "She made me into this."

"But we could help you," Phineas told him, "We can come to an understanding-"

Before he could say anything else he felt Moon's hand on his shoulder, and he fell silent. She gave him a look, accompanied by a tiny shake of her head, and then approached Six-Bolt's shriveled body. Her eyes were cold as she looked down at him, but Phineas could see hurt in them as well, hidden away behind the flames of hate. "You used to be my friend," was all she said.

Six-Bolt nodded weakly. "M-Moon, I-"

He didn't have time to say anything else before she snapped his neck, a single quick movement that killed him instantly. His eyes now stared blankly ahead of him, the fire in them gone, and Moon took a step back, still holding his gaze. For a long time she just stood.

"Moon, you just-"

"I had to," she turned to him suddenly, taking a deep breath, "It's done."

"But," Phineas could feel his mind slowing to a halt. He knew that Moon had no problems with killing things, but he could never get used to it. It made him a little bit sick, and he turned away.

Moon sighed. "Come on. We'll take you home."

Phineas hesitated and then nodded. He and Ferb followed Moon out into the tunnel, but Phineas turned back to the cavern. "What about Zhalgo?"

Moon stopped. After a minute she turned back to him. "You can fix it, can't you?"

Phineas nodded.

"Go and bring it home, then," she watched them both dart off back into the cavern, returning a minute later with the pieces of Zhalgo that they could carry. It looked almost as bad as it had at the bottom of the cliff - although it hadn't been fully assembled, it was clear it would need extensive work. Phineas held its dented head in both hands, and Moon quickly took it so that he wouldn't drop it.

Moon helped the boys down the side of the cliff without a word. She normally didn't talk much unless she had to, but even now she was unusually quiet.

"Moon?" Phineas asked.

Her eyes shifted down to him, and she cocked an eyebrow.

"Are you going to leave Danville again?"

Moon paused a moment, but then glanced back at him. "I don't know."

By the time they got back home, it was almost dark. They set Zhalgo in the garage and then the boys headed inside. Candace and Isabella were both elated that they'd returned, although neither of them gave more than a glance to Moon, and Moon seemed to be alright with that.

She sat on the front step, staring out at the setting sun. When it had come up earlier that morning, she hadn't been sure if she would get to see it again, and she was glad now that she could. Somehow she felt better, not only glad that she was still alive but _better_. She couldn't explain it, and so she wouldn't try, but she at least knew that she owed it to the boys for putting Zhalgo back together. She hadn't thought about it for so long, and then it had just turned up seemingly without warning - but she supposed that she should have seen it coming. Six-Bolt had built it for her in the first place, and so it would only make sense that it would have been with him.

"Hey."

Moon turned to see Marissa, sitting on the front step across from her, and she gave her an acknowledging nod. She wouldn't say so but she didn't particularly dislike Marissa the way she did Isabella and Candace (and she was well aware the feeling with them was mutual), but she knew not to get too close.

"Thanks for saving my brother," Marissa told her, giving her a side-long glance to see if she would react.

Moon only nodded.

"I know it's not really my business, but," Marissa paused, her voice suddenly becoming quiet, "Phineas thinks you should stay here."

Moon nodded again. "He thinks a lot of things about me."

"He means it, you know," Marissa told her, "He really likes you."

Moon turned to her. "Why?"

"What?"

"Why?" Moon repeated, "Why does he like me?"

Marissa shrugged. "I don't know. He's always had a lot of friends-"

"So what? Am I supposed to be his friend now?" Moon shot her a look that wasn't quite angry but wasn't quite neutral either. If anything she seemed a little uncertain.

"No," Marissa said quickly, "Not if you don't want to be."

Moon didn't have an answer.


	16. The Day That Moon Stayed

It was two days later when the boys went back to Shadowshire. Phineas wasn't certain if he would find Moon there, since he knew that she had been a wanderer before she'd arrived in Danville and that even after staying a while she had gone. He stood at the heavy front door, giving it a few pounds with the heel of his hand, and waited for an answer.

After a moment of silence the door swung open, and Moon stood in the frame. Her eyes were carefully blank as she stared at him for a minute before letting him in, but even then she watched them without a word. She glanced to the bare living-room floor to indicate that they sit, and sat with them once they had found a place.

"Moon, we wanted to talk to you for a bit," Phineas began, "It's about Zhalgo-"

"Is it finished?" Moon demanded, her eyes flicking to Phineas.

Phineas nodded. "I thought you'd want to see him again."

"Show me."

The boys led her out of the house and down to the junkyard at the edge of town. "There wasn't enough room to put him together in the backyard," Phineas explained, "and since Mom and Dad came home last night the garage wasn't available either."

Moon didn't say a word as she followed them past several old junked cars to a huge pile of old tires. Phineas turned to it and grinned. "Zhalgo?"

Slowly the machine peeked out, a little uncertain.

"Zhalgo, come out," Phineas smiled, "Moon's here."

When it came out, Moon could see exactly how far the repairs had gone - it had been given a brand-new pair of wings in shining steel; its cage had been rebuilt and then reinforced; its head was no longer dented; its cast-iron grin reformed; its eyes replaced with new brighter bulbs; its spindly arms stronger; its wings fitted with new supple leather; its tail cleaned and then attached with tough steel rivets. It stared down at Moon for a moment, hesitant, for it hadn't been certain if it could be accepted by its mistress again.

Moon stared back at it, her mind racing but her eyes showing nothing. She approached the machine, resting a hand on the side of its tail and keeping its stare.

Resting back on the tips of its wings, Zhalgo reached down and plucked Moon up with one wiry hand, as it used to have done before she had left it, and set her down carefully on top of its cage. It gave an elated squeal, glad that she would accept it again, and settled a little lower so that it could more easily keep its balance.

"Sorry it took so long," Phineas told her, "We had to be really careful with all those gears in his head since there were so many of them. Only thing is that we couldn't find the pieces that would let him talk-?"

"It never could," Moon told him, shaking her head, "It just sings."

Phineas cocked an eyebrow. "Oh."

Moon sat with Zhalgo for a few moments, silent not because she didn't have anything to say but because she couldn't think of _what_ to say. Zhalgo, here! After so long it had come back to her! After a minute she turned to the boys. "Come up," she said, "We'll go flying."

Zhalgo let them up into its cage, and Moon as well, and they took off.

It was nearly dark by the time they returned to Shadowshire. Phineas could tell that Moon had changed; although it wasn't a direct shift, she somehow seemed more amiable and relaxed than she had been before. She jumped down from Zhalgo's cage as it landed, helping the boys down as well, and then took them back into the house.

"Moon, wait a minute," Phineas trotted to catch up to her, taking her wrist and making her turn back to him. "You're not going to leave again, are you?"

Moon paused, and immediately Phineas knew that she would be gone. But after a moment she shook her head. "Probably not. I can afford to stay here for a while."

**Coming soon: **_**Fungal Jungle**_


End file.
